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THIS BOOK IS THE PROPERTY OF

THE LOUNGE LIBRARY,

11, Western Road, Shoreham^by^Sea.

It Is due for return by the last date stamped.

ri7 OCT 1938

2 1 OCT 1935

(gOOCT 1935

1^ DEC 1935
=-7 MAR 1936

- #

THE RED BURGEE

THE RED
BURGEE

SEA COMEDIES

BY
MORLEY ROBERTS

AUTHOR OP

^TH£ FROlCOnOir OP THE ADMIRAL,"

"Tin BLUB PBTRR," ETC.

LONDON

EVELEIGH NASH

1906

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

All the stories included in this

volume have been previously

published

CONTENTS

PAOB

All Spain and Captain Spink .... 9

An Insultbd Ship 30

A Man's Death 62

Thx Gold Mine of Kertch Bar .... 90

On a Taut Bowline 109

Wash-Tub Davis 126

Wide Bay Bar 144

The Measuring op the Dhow . .161

A Sea Comedy 174

ALL SPAIN AND CAPTAIN
SPINK

Captain Spink said, **Dainn Spain!" and
it was perhaps fortunate that the alguazil
did not understand English.

" Que hay ? " replied the alguazil.

"I don't deal in it," said the captain;
"but hay or quay, I don't shift from here,
and that's flat — as flat as an entertainment
in a Bethel."

The captain was little and square and
chunky, and he had a cross glitter in his
eye like an opal. Smooth him down with
butter and his eye was mild mother-of-pearl,
but rub him the wrong way and it gleamed
like blood.

" An evil eye," said the alguazil ; ** I
think it would be advisable to retreat with
dignity and inform my superior."

He only uttered the last section aloud.
9

THE RED BURGEE

*' You're right every time, sonny," said
the captain, "when you hook it. But you
can tell your superiors to bring up on the
lee side of hell. I hope they'll enjoy the
smoke ! "

He lighted a cigar and promenaded the
hot deck of the Swan of Avon.

" Tm Captain Spink — Harry Sharpness
Spink — of the Swan of Avon, that's what I
am. And I come from Gloucester ; double
Glo'ster every time," said the captain.
*' And if any man runs a thundering old
tramp like my Swan to better advantage
for myself (and owners) let him come on
board and tell me so."

But no one came on board: firstly, be-
cause few loved Spink; secondly, because
there was no one on the wharf but a
few loafers ; and, thirdly, because the lovely
Swan was the only tramp in the harbour.

" I believe Tm cross," said Captain Harry
Sharpness Spink from Gloucester ; '• I really
do believe it. And where the devil is my
devil of a mate ? "

He roared down the companion.

ALL SPAIN AND CAPTAIN SPINK

''Come up and quarrel with me, you
wharf rat/' said Captain Spink.

"When I get ready,** said the mate
from below. " For TU have you know it's
Sunday, and 1*11 quarrel with no one till to-
morrow.**

"Oh, very well," replied Spink; "then
come up and be civil and give me a chance
to get the kinks out of my tongue.'*

"1*11 come when I get ready,'* said the
mate. **Can*t you see I'm fixing myself
up? Isn*t a man to have a moment to
himself in this here boat? Where do you
keep your collars ? **

"Where you'll not get them," replied
Captain Spink. " Who*ve you fallen in love
with now that your mind runs on collars?
I should have thought your sort would have
been satisfied with a bandanner ! "

The mate sniggered.

*' I took your last girl, anyhow," said he,
" and well you know it. She said she loved
my sea-boots better than Captain Spink. And
that's the reason you're so down on Spain."

" I'll punch your head," cried the skipper.
II

THE RED BURGEE

" If you say that again,** said the mate,
"Til quarrel, whatever day of the week
it is."

As Captain Spink could keep no officer
whom he was able to lick, he said no more
about fighting. And from this it may be
judged that captain, mate and second mate
made a good show among any ordinary
crowd.

But presently Ward came on deck. He
was big and handsome, but a trifle scarred
with cuts from a stay-sail hank that he got
fighting in a sailors' home.

** So you won't lend me a collar ? " he
asked.

'* Mine wouldn't reach round a capstan,"
replied the captain. ** Why didn't you come
up when you heard me havin' words with
that chap ? "

**You know I don't come up till I'm
ready," said Ward ; "and if you can't tackle
one Spaniard, why, what good are you ? "

Spink frowned and looked round the
harbour.

" I'd tackle all Spain," said Captain

ALL SPAIN AND CAPTAIN SPINK

Spink. "Ain't I an Englishman, the best
class of 'em, that comes from Glo'ster ? "

"The best class comes from Yorkshire,*'
cried Ward, "and if it was to-morrow, I'd
show you."

Spink look at him.

" Well, but it's to-day, and Glo'ster goes,"
he replied firmly.

" Not if Bill was here," said Ward, with
disdain.

For Bill was the second mate, and came
from Newcastle.

"You always bring in Bill," said Spink,
a trifle fretfully.

^' He don't have no regard for Sunday,"
replied Ward ; ** if anything, I should say he
fights better on Sunday or Christmas Day
than any other day. And I'd like to hear
you run down Newcastle in favour of Glo'ster
when he's hot. You never argue counties
with me except it's a day I won't do no
fighting on."

"It ain't counties, but countries now," said
Spink, " for if I know anything about Spain
and the Mediterranean they'll make it hot

THE RED BURGEE

for me tying up here when they said I
shouldn't."

Ward snorted.

**Then why doit?"

*' Why do it ? " asked Spink, in surprise.
'* And don't you know me ? "

-Worse luck! " said Ward. " But Bill's
coming down the wharf, rolling."

" Don't you say nothing about counties to
him," urged the skipper, " I don't want no
row just now- "

" Oh yes," said Ward ; it's you are on Sun-
days now, are you ? I've half a mind "

" Oh, dry up ! " said Spink.

And then Bill climbed on board. He was
something the build of a puncheon, and
rolled, drunk or sober.

" Bung up and bilge free," he remarked as
he fell over a coiled hawser.

" What cheer, Newcastle ? " asked Ward,
as the second greaser tried to rise.

*' Don't you throw no slurs on Newcastle,"
burred Bill, ** or it'll be the worse for the
pair of you. All the engine-room crowd's in
gaol!"

ALL SPAIN AND CAPTAIN SPINK

After having imparted this information he
rolled over and fell asleep in the hawser coil,
while Spink raged and stormed on the tarred
deck.

" Oh, damn all Spain ! " he cried once
more, " from Santander to Malaga, and from
Barcelona to Cadiz. Can I ever come into
a Spanish port without trouble of the worst
kind ? And now to have all the engineers
in the calaboose ! It fair breaks my heart ! "

" Breaks your what ? " asked contemptuous
Ward. '* Oh, you sicken me, you fair sicken
me, you really do. And a man with your
nat'ral gifts, too ! "

He spat on the deck with disgust.

"Well," complained the skipper, apolo-
getically, "and can't you understand how
some things goes beyond any man's powers
of swearing ? And mayn't I have a notion
of Sunday with regard to language just as
you have with regard to fighting.^ You've
no logic ! "

" What ! me no logic ? " asked the thunder-
struck mate. " You say that ? You ?
Haven't I argued with you till you fell

THE RED BURGEE

asleep, fair wore out ? Well, that does take
the cake ! "

" Then you'd better argue with the crowd
in uniform that's coming down the wharf,"
said Spink ; " for if I know this lot you'll
have a chance. How I wish I wasn't sober !
There'd have bin a lovely row ! "

This was the third time that the Stvan of
Avon had been in the little port of Aguilas,
and very naturally she and her crowd were
better known than liked When Spink took
her there first he was in a hurry, and not
being much accustomed to Spaniards,
mafiana was too much for him.

"Everything's to-morrow with this lot,"
said Spink, mournfully, as he drank hot rum
under an awning. '*0h, give me Russians,
even Russians ! "

And on going up town at night he got
into trouble and found himself, much bruised
with blows from a heavy sword in its
scabbard, uncomfortably in gaol.

When he visited burning bright Aguilas
for the second time he had a row with all
the town and port authorities on the subject

ALL SPAIN AND CAPTAIN SPINK

of ballast, which he wanted to discharge
over the side when alongside the wharf.
And that cost him many dollars and a
week's detention.

But now he had made fast in a berth
wanted for a boat coming from Barcelona,
which was owned by the biggest man in
town.

** And just out of sheer cussedness," said
Ward. **Oh, I wish I'd never sailed with
you!"

** Who'd have you but me ? " asked Spink.

And then the crowd in uniform came
alongside.

** Speak slow, you big black beggar," said
Spink to the chief policeman who said
something, **or I can't savvy."

The big black beggar repeated a sentence.

•' Oh, I savvy," said Spink. " Mariana / "

" I had him there," he added, turning to
Ward. "They filled me up once with to-
morrer. Let 'em have some back, and see
how they like it ! "

But " to-morrow " was not in the mind of
the chief of police.

17 B

THE RED BURGEE

** By crums," said Spink, " they're going
to cut us adrift."

And before he could do anything but yell
the Swan of Avon was disconnected from
the wharf, for three cuts with an axe on the
head and stern fasts set her free, add the
wind blew her off slowly.

"Well, I'm damned!" said the skipper,
blankly. "Oh, you black perisher, how'll
I ever get even with you ? Say something
for me, Ward ! Say something bad about
his wife and his mother-in-law ; tell him we
took Gibraltar from 'em ; tell 'em Cuba ain't
theirs no more ; chuck in suthin* about the
American Senate! Oh, what did I ship
you for but because you know'd more
Spanish ? "

And Captain Spink danced with rage,
while Ward leant over the side saying what
he thought would hurt them most But he
had to leave off soon in order to prevent the
Swan going ashore. They dropped anchor
just in time, and in no more than time, for
when she swung wind-rode, a big rock was
within two fathoms of her stern.

ALL SPAIN AND CAPTAIN SPINK

" This is all your foolishness," said Ward,
mopping his forehead with his neck hand-
kerchief **And now I'll never dare set
foot ashore here after what I told 'em."

" You never made 'em half as mad as I
will," said the skipper, solemnly. " I'll
make 'em wish they'd been Portuguese. I'll
make all this town sick. I'll make some die
of apoplexy. I'll make 'em so hot that the
sun at noon will cool 'em."

" What's your game ? " asked Ward.

"You wait till we're ready to go," said
Spink. *' I've got a plan ! I tell you all
Spain ain't a match for Captain Harry Sharp-
ness Spink of Glo'ster ! Oh, no, not much i
Could you mix yourself and me a drink, and
bring me up the signal book ? "

" What for ? " asked the mate.

** Becos," said the skipper. And as Ward
was dry he went below.

It was three days before the Swan of Avon
was discharged and seven more before she
was loaded. And to the intense surprise of
Ward and Bill and the entire crowd,
including the engineers, who were out of the

THE RED BURGEE

calaboose, Spink didn't sail when he was
ready.

'' How many Spanish flags have we got,
Bill ? " asked Spink, that afternoon.

** Not one that I know of," replied the
second mate.

" Then buy some coloured caUco cheap and
set the men making three or four," said Spink.
" And a Portugee flag, two of *em at least"

" What for ? " asked the puzzled Bill.

''That's my business," said the skipper.
" Who commands this vessel — me or you ?
And jest tell the mate Td like to speak to
him."

Presently Ward climbed on the poop.

" What's got you, to lie here ? " he growled.
" Have they been so good to you in Aguilas
that you'll pay extra dues to make their
fortunes ? "

Spink closed one eye and grinned.

" Don't you know me ? Who am I ?
I'm Captain Harry Sharpness Spink from
Glo'ster. And the best men "

*' No, they don't, by gosh ! " said Ward,
suddenly. "It ain't Sunday, mind ! "

ALL SPAIN AND CAPTAIN SPINK

The skipper looked him up and down.

" Very well, they don't, then ; but all the
same didn't I say I'd make the name of Spink
ring through Spain ? "

''You did say some such kind of foolish-
ness," the mate admitted.

"And I meant it," cried the skipper.
•' But I want you to go ashore and see if
they've any kind of guns on that hill there."

** I was up there last time and they have,"
said Ward.

"Any good .>"

"I'd be sorry to fire one and be within a
nautical mile of it. But what's guns on a
hiUtous?"

Spink looked cunning.

" Never you mind. You know me, and
my name, and where I came from, and what
I says I does it every time. The day after
to-morrow is their big day in Aguilas ; it's
their pattern saint's day, ain't it ? "

Ward scratched his head.

" How should I know ? And what's a
pattern saint ? "

The skipper snorted.

THE RED BURGEE

•* A pattern saint is the one they have all
to themselves, according to their own
specification, as per original indent ; the
sealed pattern bein' kept at Rome," said he.
" But for all your ways on Sunday it's little
you know about religion, Ward, very
little."

The next day Bill had the Spanish and
Portuguese flags ready. And to them the
captain added some more which he had
prepared in his own cabin.

"What's your game.^'* asked both the
mates at supper.

And the skipper winked the other eye.

"A Spaniard is a touchy kind of thing,
ain't he?"

" He is," allowed the mates.

"Then I'm going to touch him on the
raw," said the captain. " I'll show him what
it means to cut me adrift. There was two
fathoms cut off that new hawser. They shall
pay for it in having their blooming fester
spoiled."

** You might tell," urged the mates.

But Spink blandly refused, for he was

ALL SPAIN AND CAPTAIN SPINK

sweet and mellow and his eyes were
pearly.

"Wait till to-morrow," he said.

And when to-morrow came he and Ward
went ashore early and got their papers fixed
up with the big black beggar who had cut
them adrift.

"Adios, Senor Maflana," said Spink.
** Good-bye, you hawser-cutting swine that
ought to be trimming coals for a living."

But he said it so mildly that the official
imagined the Capitan Inglese had quite for-
given him.

**Ask him if it ain't their pattern saint's
fester^' said he to Ward.

And the Spaniard said it was their great
festa.

"Then tell him, Ward, that as we ain't
leaving till this afternoon I'll flag out the
Swan in honour of Saint What's-his-Name."

The sombre Spaniard replied that it was
infinitely obliging on his part, and that he
had no doubt the display would be brilliant
and most gratifying to the gentleman in
question.

THE RED BURGEE

"Yes, brillatUe,'' said Spink, catching the
word. " Caramha, maHana ; adios, seHorT'

"I wish you wouldn't try to talk it,"
growled Ward, " because you caa't"

But Spink whistled, and walked back
cheerfully through the hot and humming
street.

When he got on board he called up
MTherson, the chief engineer.

"When will you be ready, Mac?" he
asked.

"I'm ready now," grumbled the chief,
"and have been this two days."

" Get all the steam on her you can," said
the skipper, "for maybe TU want to leave in
a hurry about four."

" What's up?" asked M'Pherson.

" You wait and see," said Spink.

They were then lying at anchor, and as
there was little wind to speak of, the Swan
of Avon pointed her rusty nose all round the
shop till Spink laid out a kedge astern and
got her ready for the harbour entrance. And
at noon he started to flag her out

"Send up the Spanish ensign, three of
24

ALL SPAIN AND CAPTAIN SPINK

'em, above everything," said he, "and
shove up all the signals just as you please,
Bill"

And the crowd ashore, in festal attire,
cheered at the brave display.

"Well, what now?" said Bill. "What
about the Portuguese flags and the Stars and
Stripes?"

The captain sat under the awning, drink-
ing long drinks.

" Give it time to soak in, sonny. There's
no hurry. Maybe they'll send a deputation
to thank us."

They did not do that, but the whole town
was ^oon watching the Swan.

" The Englishman must be drunk," said
the town presently. For Spink got to haul-
ing the flags down and hoisting them up
again till the men at the signal halliards
were wet with the exercise.

" That'll fix their eyes on us," said Spink.
" What time is it. Ward ? There's a bit of
breeze now."

" It's three," said Ward.

" Then heave her short and tell Mac to

>Micn professional etiquette dei

" Then hciul down the Spai
said Spink, going below to his i

He came up with a bundle
saw to their arrangement himsel

" They'll murder us," said Wa
tumbled to the captain's notion.

" Murder blazes/' said the sk
temptuously. "We'll give it
degrees."

When he hoisted the flags again,
laughed, and some of the people as
mured at the lack of English tact

For the Stars and Stripes flew
Spanish flag.

** Haul 'em down again," roared t
skipper, jumping on the deck. '
'em to cut me adrift"

" What h^'''* -

ALL SPAIN AND CAPTAIN SPINK

cutting out big letters and sewing them on
two plain pennants.

" Hoist away ! " he yelled.

And in the breeze flew two flags above
the Spanish flag, with ** Cuba Libre " on one
and "Gibraltar" on the other. A crowd
gathered on the wharf, and when they made
out the legends there was the ugly sound of
an angry mob. Some ran into the town.

** That'll show you," said Captain Harry
Sharpness Spink; "that'll teach you, my
fine fellows."

He took another drink.

"Haul' em down again and shove the Portu-
guese flag over the Spanish," he commanded.
And now his men entered into the matter
heartily and cheered as the flags went up.
But the news ran through the town and the
crowd on the wharf increased every moment.
Some threw stones at the Swan and a few of
them reached her. Others got into boats.

"Get the hose ready," said Captain Spink,
who was now rather under the sun. " Soak
them if they come near. And hoist the
Spanish flag upside down I "

THE RED BURGEE

But Ward touched him on the arm.

" Look/' he said, pointing to the hill.

'•What?" asked Spink.

" They're at that old gun/' said Ward.

•'To blazes with the gun/' hiccoughed
Spink ; '' I come from Glo'ster I Just rig up a
signal to say we don't care a damn for guns/'

•'It ain't in the signal book/' said Bill,
who was standing alongside. ''But don't
you reckon you've done enough signalling ? "

The folks ashore evidently thought so, for
as the words left Bill's mouth a shot left the
muzzle of the old twenty-four pounder on the
hill.

" They can't hit us," said Spink, as the
round shot screamed overhead and pitched
into the water at the harbour mouth. ** Send
the steward up with another drink. This is
a cashus belli^ that's what this is. Salisbury
will have to hear of this/'

" Don't you think we'd better get ofif? "
asked Ward.

" Not till you and Bill owns up that
Glo'ster's the county," said the skipper,

drinking, " else I stay here till "

ALL SPAIN AND CAPTAIN SPINK

But then a shot knocked a splinter out of
the funnel.

" Good old gun ! " said Spink. " Will you
argue counties now ? "

" No, Glo'ster goes," cried Ward, hastily.

"Then take her out," said the skipper,
"for I think I'll have a bit of a snooze."

And as the flagged-out Swan of Avon left
Aguilas, Captain Harry Sharpness Spink of
Glo'ster fell asleep in a deck-chair.

AN INSULTED SHIP

" Now ye know well, and deny it ye cannot,
though ye would if ye could, that the
Windermere can lick ye close-hauled, or
with the wind free, or with it on the beam,
and with it on the quarter," said Captain
Stokes of the Windermere ; "and you can
tell your wife so."

But Captain Jenkins of the Batlarat
smoked, and looked superior.

" Deny it ! " repeated Stokes, with a
redder face ; " deny it ! "

** Why the blue blazes should I put myself
out of the way, with the thermometer where
it is, to deny any silly statement made by
the first fool that comes along?" asked
Jenkins, addressing his question apparently
to a thick-stemmed glass of Scotch whisky
standing on the table before him.

" Do ye mean me by * the first fool ? ' "
30

AN INSULTED SHIP

asked Stokes, angrily. '* For if ye did, I
ask ye to call to mind how many times ye
tried for a master's certificate before ye got
it. And mine came to me easy at the very
first time of askin*. Now, did ye mean me
—me?''

** I did," said Jenkins, firmly.

Stokes, who was by far the bigger man,
half rose up. But Jenkins put his hand
casually on a heavy stone match-box and
his rival sat down again.

" I came in here," said he, " not to have a
row with you, but to argue it out I say the
Windermere can knock spots off the Ballarat.
Isn't that argument? What did they say
about your vessel last survey ? When they
drove a bolt out did it ask for driving ? No,
out it came like a rotten tooth. But the
Windermere is sound and salted throughout
— tons of it in her. Tons, pian ! "

'* Does salt make a ship faster ? Does it
put a knot on her as well's a year to her
class ? That's what I want to know ; and an
answer to the point would greatly oblige," said
Jenkins, still speaking to his glass of whisky.

cw Liic power of drivin' he

know it, Captain Jenkins. Fo.
to a main t'gaH'n's'l when your
and mizzen, is reefed. Because
is rotten, and druxy right throuj

*'Druxy! what's druxy?" as
visibly angry at last. " What c
sayin' she's druxy ? *'

Stokes triumphed.

" If ye don't know what it is
harm have I done ye ? And i:
can't deny the word, and little ]
buildin' a ship. And that I do ! ''

" Ay," said Jenkins ; ** you maj
Stokes, but can ye sail one ? "

He chuckled, and Stokes jump

** I can sail a ship, or a ba
schooner, or a barge, or a butter-
ye any day, Captain TpnU^r^r,

AN INSULTED SHIP

the port of London, beatin' ye a whole long
month."

" Because my silly ass of a mate dropped
the chronometer on the deck/' said Jenkins.
" No other reason."

" What ! no other reason ? " roared Stokes.
" Here, oh Lord ! let me have another
drink!"

He rang the bell and ordered one.

**The same for me," said Jenkins. "Oh,
ain't it hot .>"

"A good argument — ^a thing I like —
always warms a man,'' cried Stokes. '^ But
sweatin' cools me too. And I say I can out-
sail ye any tack."

" Any tack of talk," said Jenkins. ** But
though words is wind, they don't blow no ship
along. If they did, you'd cross a calm like the
Flying Dutchman^ with your lee rail under,"

"Talking of tack now," jeered Stokes,
" can you tell hackmatack from hickory ? Of
course you can't ! "

"Then, if you know, why ask.^" said
Jenkins. " I'm not a bot'nist — no, nor a
ship's carpenter. I'm the master of a sailing

33 c

THE RED BURGEE

ship and know my business, and that's good
enough for my owners. And if I didn't
know pitch-pine from teak, would it make
any difference to my doing you in the eye a
good knot with the wind aft ? "

"Yes, aft, and aft only," cried Stokes.
*' But going home I don't have to chase you
down wind all the way. If I lost all through
to the line, I'd pick it up in the North-East
Trades and leave you going to loo'ard like a
haystack in a barge."

**But it ain't so," said Jenkins, now a
little under the weather, *' and just now you
put me out and let me allow you to make you a
statement that hasn't no foundations. When
did you ever see us bound the same way and
you swinging your to'gall'n's'l and me with
reefed topsails ? for you never did it, no, nor
could."

** Very well," replied Stokes. '* I'll have
another, and ye can too, if ye like, and we'll
argue it out fair and square."

**ril pay for my own, thank ye," growled
Jenkins.

" And to get on with the argument, I say
34

AN INSULTED SHIP

I done so," cried Stokes. "It was two
years ago, in eighteen-eighty, and, if I re-
member rightly, and I do— it was when we
was both bound for Liverpool, and we
sighted each other off the Tuscan"

'* And didn't I shake the reefs out, and
h'ist my t'gall'n'sl ? " asked Jenkins. " And
how long was you before me with yours ? "

" I was before you."

" And soon was behind me ! Bah ! " said
Jenkins, nastily. " Oh, what's your argu-
ment ? "

Stokes rose and banged the table.

** My argument is that I can sail round ye,"
he roared; **and further, my argument is
that yell see me do it ; and furthermore and
moreover, every one 'U know it "

'' And make a song about it when it's done,
eh ? '* said Jenkins. '* But it ain't done, and
if you ever dare to try it and come across my
hawse I'll cut you down to the water's edge
and leave you to drown. That's what I'll do !
Your argument ! Oh, damn your argument ! "

And Jenkins smote Stokes's drink gff the
table and went.

THE RED BURGEE

'* But I beat him at the argument," said
Stokes, nodding his fat red head ; '' at that I
beat him. And ain't he a nasty temper
just?"

Captain Jenkins of the abused Ballarai, a
barque of 800 tons register, went down the
smoking hot pier, with its entrance lying
between burning sandhills, cursing the
weather and old Stokes. For the truth is
that the skipper of the Windermere seemed
to have told no lies when he cracked up his
own vessel and ran down the Ballarafs
sailing qualities.

'• Sail round me ! " said Jenkins ; ** now
just let him try it ! "

It was Sunday afternoon, and a few
hundred Melbourne girls and their young
men were on the pier. For on that day
Sandridge was a kind of Southend, and
represented the seaside to many who stewed
in the juices of Melbourne through the week.
Jenkins took no notice of them, and cut
through the crowd like a black tug through a
fleet of pleasure boats, and at last came to
his own vessel. Going on board, he found

AN INSULTED SHIP

Mrs. Jenkins, who accompanied him on his
voyages, sitting in a deck chair under an
awning. She was much taller than Jenkins,
and very thin, but of a hardy and weather-
beaten appearance.

''And where have you been?" she de-
manded rather tartly.

For she had taken to the sea to look after
Jenkins's morals, having discovered on his
first return home that they needed looking
after.

He squatted on a hencoop.

"IVe been palavering with that beastly
idiot Stokes," he answered shortly.

" And drinking," said Mrs. Jenkins.

" And who wouldn't, this weather ? " asked
Jenkins, mopping his brow with his sleeve.

" And what had Stokes to say ? "

** He said that he*d sail round me — sail
round me ; that's what he said ! " cried
Jenkins ; '' so I knocked his drink off the
table, and away I come for fear of trouble."

Mrs. Jenkins had been to sea more or less
for thirteen years, and for a woman was a
wonder at sailorising. The men forward were

THE RED BURGEE

always having arguments as to whether she
could pass for a second mate if the Board of
Trade allowed her to try.

"Stokes said that, did he?" she cried,
" And in the Windermere ? "

** In what else ? " growled Jenkins.

•• He can't"

*'He can," said Jenkins, very sulkily,
** and what's more he will, if I give him any
show to do it. For an obstinater beast than
Stokes don't exist"

" You're a coward, and he's got you beat
before you begin,** cried Mrs. Jenkins
angrily. ** Haven't I always told you that
you was a deal too tender with our ship ? "

Jenkins shook his head and his whole
body in a cross, deprecating sort of
way.

** You know she's fair rotten, don't you.^
How did she get through her last survey?
D'ye want me to tell you that story again ?
Do I dare drive her 'cept with the wind aft,
and then I'm all a-shiver for fear of the
sticks coming right out of her."

" Oh, you just think so," cried his wife,
38

AN INSULTED SHIP

contemptuously. "Where's the nerve you
had when you married me ? "

"Oh, where?" said Jenkins, disconso-
lately. " I haven't got it now, not with the
Ballaratr

"Then I'll have it for you," cried Mrs.
Jenkins. Turning, she roared down the sky-
light to the steward.

"Tell Mr. Cook he's wanted."

And in five minutes the hot and sleepy
mate crawled on deck.

"Well.^" he demanded rather discourt-
eously.

" Look here, Mr. Cook," said the captain's
wife, "if you were in command of the
Ballarai and the captain of any ship said
he'd sail round you, what would you
do?"

" I 'd punch his head," growled the mate ;
" why, of course."

" You hear that, Captain Jenkins ? " asked
Mrs. Jenkins. " But suppose he tried it after
that?"

The mate considered and scratched his
head.

THE RED BURGEE

" Vd try to stop him doin' it," he said at
last.

^^ You hear that, Captain Jenkins ? And
you wouldn't sit down, Mr. Cook, and say it
couldn't be helped ? "

•* Not till rd tried, ma'am."

*• You hear that, Edward? "

Jenkins shifted on his seat uneasily.

" Oh, I hear it, Maria ; of course I hear it
But suppose it was the Wuidermere that
was goin' to sail round the Ballarat^
Cook?"

Cook turned and ran his eye over the
Windermere^ which was lying on the other
side of the pier.

" If it was the Windermere ? " he asked
slowly.

*' Yes, if it was?" said Mrs. Jenkins.

Cook brought his eyes back to the Ballarat
and cast a look aloft

"Well, I'm damned if I don't believe sheM
do it," he said.

Mrs. Jenkins stamped on the deck.

" Oh, I've no patience ! " she cried.
"Where's Jack?"

AN INSULTED SHIP

Now Jack was her nephew and the second
mate. She roared down the skylight again.

" Send Mr. Atkinson up."

" He's sleepin', the same as I was," said
the mate.

** But Ae can wake up/' retorted Mrs.
Jenkins, bitterly. ^*He's got some go in
him ; it's in the blood."

" Yes, ma*am," said Cook, meekly.

Presently Jack Atkinson came on deck,
obviously in an insubordinate mood.

" None of your impertinence," said his
fiery aunt. And she put the case to him.

" If I believed he could do it," cried Jack,
*^ I'd hurt him so that he'd stay in hospital
till I got a good month ahead of him."

Mrs. Jenkins shook her fist at him.

"Always violence in you men, and mostly
on your tongues and not anywhere else," she
cried. " But could the Windermere do it } "

Jack's eye travelled over the Windermere
as the mate's had done.

'•I'm damned if I don't believe she could,"
said Jack.

His aunt's eyes flashed.
41

THE RED BURGEE

" She can't and she sha'n't ; and if she does
ril never set foot in the Ballarat again.
No, never," she cried. " Very well, you can
go.

'* That'll do the watch," said Jack, wink-
ing at the chief mate ; and, going below, they
sat smoking till the sun went down.

''Look here," said Mrs. Captain Jenkins,
when they were gone, " all the passage out
the Ballarat carried a lee helm. That'll have
to be altered. It takes something off her,
don't it?"

" Yes," said Jenkins.

" Then you'll get a new spanker. The one
we have is sizes too small. I hate that
Stokes, and his wife too. And you've often
said you could get her half a point nearer the
wind if you wanted to. Now you'll please
want to, Edward. You'll just have to fix it
so that you can slack off the lee topmast
rigging when it's required."

" I shall lose the topmasts," said Edward.

**No, you won't," cried his wife, hastily,
" and if you did, Stokes couldn't crow.
Why, if the ThemiopylcB was dismasted, it

AN INSULTED SHIP

wouldn't be a feather in the cap of a mud-
barge to sail round her, and you've often said
you thought you ought to get up some
preventer backstays."

Edward gasped and wiped his forehead.

'• Very well, my dear."

" And there's another thing. Did we ever
make such a good passage as we did when
we was rather deep, and a bit by the stern,
for that matter ? You know we didn't. I'll
see Gray myself. We ought to have that
tallow, not Stokes."

" The lighter he is, in reason, the better
for us," said Jenkins. " It's something in the
build of her."

" Of course," said the new captain, " we
may lose a little running, but we'll make it up
other ways. And we want more stuns'l gear,
booms especially."

•'My dear!" said Jenkins, *'what'll the
owners say ? "

" Oh, what!" said his wife, contemptuously ;
" I'd rather you got the sack and sailed a
tug on the Tyne than be sailed round. And
if you punched Stokes's head before we went

THE RED BURGEE

I don't know but what Td not mind it, so
as you didn't get in the papers."

" You wouldn't, eh ? " cried Jenkins, perk-
ing up. " Then I'll see about it He c^a't
sail round me at that, or I'm a double
Dutchman."

In the oiorning Mrs. Jenkins fixed herself
up with a regular sky-scraper of a hat, that
rose in feathers tier over tier and carried her
to loo'ard when the wind blew. Then she
went to interview Gray.

** Good Lord ! here's Mother Jenkins
booming along like a hearse with plumes,"
said Gray. ** What's she want now ? "

For he dreaded her power of over-ruling ob-
jections and paralysing opposition. When she
opened on him he listened with a craven spirit

" You know we're short of freight, any-
how," he urged, " and as it was arranged, the
Windermere was to have the tallow."

**Well, I want it," said Mrs. Jenkins
sternly ; *' unless the BaUarafs deep she's
not a weatherly ship, as you know well."

" But what can I tell Stokes } " asked
Gray, "for I said he was to have it"

AN INSULTED SHIP

"Then say it was an error," cried Mrs.
Jenkins, "and if Tm not mistaken he won't
have any objections. He hates being
deep,"

"That's so," said Gray. "Then Til see
about it."

" No," said Mrs. Jenkins, sitting down on
a stool, " I want it settled now."

She looked as if she meant staying.

•*Very well, then," cried Gray, "you shall
have it."

Mrs. Jenkins smiled a weather-beaten
smile of victory and withdrew triumphant,
firmly convinced that with a few neat arrange-
ments she might make the Ballarat some-
thing that the Windermere could not sneeze
at

Though she had dismissed Cook and her
nephew very summarily, she took them into
council again.

*' Can either of you suggest anything that'd
help this vessel on a wind, close hauled ? "
she demanded.

They shrugged their shoulders.

" Oh, you're a helpless lot for sailors," she
45

THE RED BURGEE

cried. "Can't you think of a thing to help
her?"

The mate scratched his head.

'' The Ballarafs always short-handed, and
she's a slow worker and a hard/' he said.
" Four more for'ard would make a lot of
difference. More beef to the braces. That's
my notion."

"I'll see about it, Cook. Is there any-
thing else, Cook ? "

"Ask him," said the mate, jerking his
thumb at Jack.

" Uncle's a deal too tender with her," said
that hopeful. "He's not half the driver he
should be."

" That'll be seen to," said Mrs. Jenkins,
snappishly.

During that week Jenkins drove them
hard, for the driver was behind him. The
Ballarat got what she wasn't used to, and
" spun yarn and new seizings " was the order
of the day. They got new booms. and the
stuns '1 gear aboard; preventer backstays
were made ready, and the rigging set up
afresh. And the Windermere did nothing.

AN INSULTED SHIP

But the crews were ready to fight ; for what
was on had soon leaked out.

*' I'd paint her," laughed Stokes — *' paint
her like the ThennopyUe, and maybe she'll
do the passage home in sixty-four days."

" Go to hell ! " said Jenkins. ** Can you
sail round me ? "

*' I can," said Stokes, **and will."

" Then if youVe a man come down on the
wharf and do it," said Jenkins.

And Stokes came down. He went back
again in five minutes.

"It's not to occur again now," said
Mrs. Jenkins, with grim satisfaction, as she
bathed Jenkins's face. ** I can't have you
fighting, Edward, and you know that well
enough."

"Did you see it?" asked Edward,
dabbing his mahogany face, which had
the veneer off in patches, on a towel the
texture of a gunny-sack.

" No ; I screamed and went below," said
the tender Mrs. Jenkins. " And I tried not
to pray that you would beat him."

" I don't care if he does sail round me
47

THE RED BURGEE

now/' said Jenkins> with thick lips and a
lumpy smile.

*'Then I do," cried his wife, fiercely.
'' If I play whist, I want to win the rubber.'*

And three days afterwards the two vessels
cleared for London, the BcUlarai being some
hours ahead of her rival.

"We'll wait for you, Captain Stokes,"
said Mrs. Jenkins, politely.

"Don't trouble to wait," retorted the
Windermere's captain, who had two black
eyes. " I can catch you easy enough if
you don't hide."

" Our side does the hiding, don't it } "
said Mrs. Jenkins, swiftly. " But who gets
it?"

By the time the full meaning of this
dawned on Stokes the Ballarat was well
clear of the wharf.

" Never you mind," said Captain Stokes,
and he revenged himself by general blas-
phemy as the Ballarat made sail.

Mrs. Jenkins had arranged for "more
beef to the braces" by personally seeking
out four full-sized failures as emigrants, who

AN INSULTED SHIP

hankered to return to England. They were
not sailor men, but that did not matter,
though the shell-backs made their lives a
burden to them by calling them the "old
woman's watch,"

"While we're in company with Stokes,"
said Mrs. Jenkins, "let them keep on deck
all day and sleep in at night. They'll be
handy then to man the braces."

But not a block cheeped now when they
trimmed the yards, for she had seen to the
sheaves being greased. She was for ever
perking round to make small improvements.

"It's that deck-house that's against her
on a wind," she said suddenly. And her
husband allowed that it was so.

" But we can't shift it."

"No," said the "Old Woman"; "but
we needn't make it worse by shoving a
lumber-yard on top. We'll have those
booms down, Edward, and the for'ard
hencoops. And if the cook puts anything
up there, I'll know the reason why."

About sundown, when they were headed for
Bass Straits, with the wind on the starboard

49 i>

THE RED BURGEE

beam but gmdually working more aft» they
were aware of the Windermere far astern of
them.

" That's good," said Mrs, Jenkins. *' The
wind draws more aft every foot we go. We
can choose our own time to let him try."

" Not if we ain't fools," said Jenkins ;
''he's goin' to get no chance if I can sail
away from him."

« I said I'd wait"

" He thought that chaff, my dear," said
Jenkins. ** For you've got to reckonise the
fact she's the faster ship."

" I don't give in to it," cried the old
woman.

"He'll get all sorts of chances to catch
up," said the mate ; " for we'll have a south-
easterly wind when we're through the Straits,
very likely."

" That's true," nodded Jenkins ; " it often
comes so."

And they lost the Windermere in the
shades of the night. The wind, which was
now fresh, not to say cold, sent Mrs. Jenkins
down below, and she soon turned in.

AN INSULTED SHIP

" If I was the skipper Td run before the
wind and lose old Stokes right off," said
Jack.

**But the old girl is bent on letting him
try it," answered the mate ; "and what she
says, goes. Jenkins has less 90ul of his own
than ever when she's riled now. And you
see if we don't have south-easterly weather
in the mornin*."

Sure enough, in the last hour of the
middle watch, Cook's word came true, and
" port mainbrace " was the word. At eight
bells she was braced sharp up, and Mrs.
Jenkins came on deck in a sou'-wester and a
cardigan jacket.

*' Have you slacked off that lee topmast
riggin'. Cook ? " asked the old girl.

'• No,'* said Cook, rather sulkily, for he
couldn't endure a woman to know the
difference between a handspike and a
down-haul.

**Then slack it away, and get the men
at the port braces. I believe we can go as
close as the Windermere any day. Here,
Jack, don't you turn in yet, I want you."

THE RED BURGEE

But Jack knew her.

'* You Ve got Cook, aunt," he said ; " and
you've had your watch below."

Finding her attention was engaged, he
slipped down and met the skipper.

" The missus wants you, sir," he said, and
went to his berth.

Jenkins found his wife at the binnacle,
rubbing her hands.

** Keep that main t'gall'n's'l just on the
shiver, Brown/' she was saying to the man
at the wheel, "There, now" (and she
caught sight of Edward), ** there now,
Edward, we're half a point nearer. What
did I tell you ? But mind you don't get her
aback with the topmast riggin' that way.
Brown."

And Brown spat in disgust.

** What's it comin' to wiv the wimmin
folk ? " he demanded of the elements.

"Let's heave the log," said she; "I
believe we're in good trim ; where's the man
as'll sail round us ? "

When the log gave them nine and a half
knots she jumped with joy.

AN INSULTED SHIP

"Think of that, Edward!** she cried.
" Send a man aloft to look for the Winder-
mere, Mr. Cook } "

But it wasn't till eight o'clock that they
picked the Windermere out of three vessels
astern of them, and before then the wind
drew so far ahead that they had to go
about.

" Hands 'bout ship ! " cried Jenkins.

"What.^" said the crew, quite dis-
appointed, "ain't the old gal goin' to do
it?"

But she was down on the main deck
seeing to the lee topmast rigging being set
up with tackles. For she had got it fixed so
that they carried the fall to the capstan and
then stoppered it. The men prophesied the
topmasts would go over the side. But there
they were wrong, for Jenkins saw to that.

And then to Mrs. Jenkins's rage the wind
drew round till it was well on the port beam,
and there died down to a light breeze. For
this was the Windermere's pet weather.
She drew up with them fast under a hot
sun. They were now well through the

THE RED BURGEE

Straits, and Flinders Island lay on their star-
board beam. When they got their new
course, the wind was more aft, but still too
light for them.

" But it suits Stokes," said the bitter Mrs.
Jenkins, gnawing her long upper lip. " He'll
be up with us by four o'clock. And he'll do
it. Will he, Cook?"

"I'm dashed if I don't believe he will,
ma'am," said Cook.

" But I punched his head," cried Jenkins,
rubbing a lessening lump with a tender
finger.

" You did," said his wife ; " he can't deny
it"

And by four o'clock the Windermere was
within long hailing distance.

Mrs. Jenkins tried to whistle for a wind.
But there her native qualities as a woman
denied her voice. She puffed angrily through
soundless, distorted lips.

It may be that the weather god took the

will for the deed, or perhaps some man's

piping appealed to him. For when the

Windermere crawled up within a mere cable's

AN INSULTED SHIP

length there was a black shadow on the
water far astern.

"Square away," said Jenkins, suddenly.
In two minutes the vessels were running
dead before the wind, and the Ballarat began
to drop her enemy inch by inch, while Mrs.
Jenkins shouted on the poop.

The wind stayed in the north-west quarter
till next day, and by then the Windermere
was almost hull down.

"Shall we drop him quite, Edward?"
asked Mrs. Jenkins.

" If it stays as it is," said the skipper.

" Or if it blows harder," said his wife.

'* If it blows harder we'll have to clew up
the mainsail, my dear," said the skipper, '* and
have the fore t'gaH'nVl off her."

'You'll do nothing of the sort," said his
wife; "you've got to drive her, Edward.
You mind me. Don't you have any sail
taken in while I'm asleep in the afternoon."

Jenkins shook his head.

" Very well, I'll see about it."

She had to be content with that, for the
wind grew heavy and the sea rose.

THE RED BURGEE

" Mr. Cook, get the mainsail off her," said
Jenkins, presently.

Mrs. Jenkins took the glass and crawled
three feet up the mizzen rigging, where she
blew out like rags on a stick,

** The Windermere is hanging on to hers,
Edward."

** I can't help it, my dear," said Jenkins,
shortly. «

** At least I think so," said his wife, " for
I can't see very well. But she's clewed up
her t'gall'n's'l now ! So I don't think so."

** Well, clew up ours, Mr. Cook," said the
captain ; ** we'll make better weather of it."

*' For't'gall'n' halliards leggo," cried the
mate.

And just when the sail was snug, and the
men were down on deck, the wind began to
moderate and haul into the north.

The WiTidermere set her topgall'n's'ls and
mainsail quick and began to draw up visibly,

"Damn ! " said Mrs. Jenkins, with tightened
lips.

"She'll be up with us by the afternoon,"
said Jenkins.

AN INSULTED SHIP

And she was.

" I thought rd catch you," said Stokes,
through a speaking trumpet

"Goto "

*'Stop, Edward,'' cries Mrs. Jenkins.
" Oh, yes ; say it while I stop my ears."

When dear Edward had made his remarks
the wind fell lighter and lighter, and what
there was of it drew ahead.

Stokes was on the Ballarafs weather
quarter, and drew up slowly. He said things
at intervals through his trumpet, and at last
could get an insult across without one.

"If it hadn't been for this choppety
changey holy show of all the winds I'd ha'
been round ye and away to hell — an' — ^gone,"
said Stokes, who was rather intoxicated.

Perhaps the wind heard him, for it shifted
suddenly, and the Windermere and Ballarat
were both aback.

*' Hard up ! " roared Jenkins. " Flatten in
the head sheets ! "

And Mrs. Jenkins attended to the spanker.
In five minutes the Ballarat was braced
sharp up. Stokes had to box the Winder-
Si

THE RED BURGEE

mere off and he lost half a mile in the race.
But when he did get her on the wind he
came up snoring through the water.

" I said rd sail round ye," he cried, *'and
now rU do it."

"Turn up all the hands," said Mrs. Jenkins,
in a pale rage. " What can we do, Edward ? "

" Nothing," said the captain.

And the Windermere came up on the
weather side at a distance of a cable's length,
and crept ahead.

**Get up the stunsails," said Mrs. Jenkins.

*' No use now," said Jenkins.

And when Stokes was a quarter of a mile
ahead he put his helm up and ran right across
the Ballarafs bows. He squared away as
he ran.

" Don't let him, Edward," screamed Mrs.
Jenkins.

** No, by gosh ! " said Jenkins, suddenly.
" Hard up there ! Mr. Cook, weather braces ! "

And when Stokes was getting dead to
loo'ard, with the wind on his starboard beam,
the Ballarat ran off with squared yards.

A collision looked inevitable if Stokes
58

AN INSULTED SHIP

held on. He doubted for a long minute and
then put his helm hard down and came up
into the wind.

Jenkins, who was white with rage, ran to
the wheel and thrust the helmsman aside.

" He's aback, Edward," yelled Mrs.
Jenkins ; " oh, can't you pay him ? Can't you
carry away something ? "

" I can," said Jenkins. And he star-
boarded his helm as though to run the
Windermere down. The crowd on board
her yelled ; they kicked their boots off ready
to jump, and paid no attention to the roars
of frightened Stokes, who wanted to box her
off again.

But when the Ballarat was within fifty
fathoms of the Windermere's starboard bow,
Jenkins ported his helm and came round in
a curve.

** Hold on everything that's rotten," he
prayed ; ** look out for yourself, Maria, if I
bring anything down ! "

For he was running straight for the
Windermere's jibboom. The men on her
fo'c'sle jumped and ran aft

THE RED BURGEE

" Where are ye comin' ? " screamed
Stokes.

But Jenkins laughed. In another moment
the crash came ; the Windermere's jibboom
snapped off close to the bowsprit, and its
gear got foul of the Ballarat's anchor and
port cat-head. And down came the Win-
dermere's foretopgallant mast.

•'Hurrah!" shouted the Ballarat's crew,'
as they cut the enemy's gear adrift And
Jenkins brought his vessel up in the wind,
backing his main topsail.

" Mr. Cook, make the signal — * Are you in
need of any assistance } * " he said, grinning.
" And, after that—' We will report you.' "

And this Cook and Jack did most elabo-
rately, with all formalities, hoisting the code
signal under the ensign, though they were
near enough to hear Stokes bellowing on
his poop.

"And now spell out to him, 'Do not
think much of your argument ! ' " said
Jenkins.

"Whats that mean?" asked Maria,
eagerly.

AN INSULTED SHIP

'* He said his argument was that he could
sail round me," cried Jenkins, wiping his
brow. "He's a long-winded arguer, he is !
See him ! I gave him what for ! And now,
after pleasure, business. Mr. Cook, fill the
mainyard! He'll find his ship-carpentering
come in handy now."

They dipped their ensign and left Stokes
at it. Then the wind, as if it desired to be
obliging, drew aft and blew a good breeze.

"We'll not see him again," said Mrs.
Jenkins.

"Maybe not," answered the doubtful
mate.

" And if we do he won't try that game
on again."

Cook screwed his mouth up.

" It's likely not. But if he did "

" I'll see he wasn't let off so easy," said
Maria, as she went below.

And she certainly looked as if she meant
it.

A MAN'S DEATH

"Our mate was a man, anyway," cried
Hillyard.

" What d')rer mean ? " said Luker, sullenly.
" He wiped me over the eye with a stopper
and nigh blinded me. If I 'adn't bin a poor
man, Td 'ave 'ad the law on 'im."

" You'd have 'ad thunder," said Hillyard ;
and he turned to the others. They were
sitting in the smoking-room of the Sailors'
Home at Hull, chewing tobacco and the
cud of dismal reflection, such as comes up
when times are hard and the weather beastly.
For Salthouse Lane outside was ankle-
deep in slush, while rain and bitter sleet
mingled upon an easterly wind fresh from
the North Sea.

" Bah ! shut the bloomin' door, can't
yer } " said Hillyard, impatiently, as a new-
comer came in.

A MAN'S DEATH

" I was shuttin' of it," said the other man.
" Do you want me to shut it when I'm on'y
'arf in, or outside, mate ? "

**No, but it's that cold, it would freeze
the toes off of a North Sea pilot, and Tm
just out of the Mediterranean," said Hill-
yard, more good-temperedly than he had
yet spoken ; for he was evidently the boss
of the crowd by right of strength and a
certain savage temper. He spoke with
decision, and there was the salt of the seven
seas on his tanned face. Not a craft afloat
but he knew her ; the paint and the funnel
of a tramp were common inevitable know-
ledge to him,

" But I was tellin' you," he went on,
''about Gordon, our mate in the Japan^
when we went to Reval with a mixed
cargo, what Eyetalians calls a fritter mister,
and come back with rickers. He was a
man. Now, wasn't Gordon a man, you
Thompson ? "

And Thompson nodded,

"You see what Thompson thinks," said
Hillyard to Luker, ** and what 'e says goes

THE RED BURGEE

with me, I don't care if 'e did bung up
your eye. If so be Vd bunged up mine,
rd say the same. 'Cause I knowed him
long afore I ever clapped eyes on the
JapaUy with her bloomin' old eight-ton-a-
day and eight-knot-an-hour steady crawl. I
knew 'im in the W. H. Smithy out of 'Frisco
for Ilo-Ilo. And 'e was afore the stick
with me ('e 'adn't no second greaser's ticket
then), and I'm telling you it wouldn't 'ave
bin 'Tom's bound to Hilo' with us if it
'adn't bin for 'im. I own that as a man in
the fo'c'sle he was a bit of a sea-lawyer ;
but then 'e 'ad eddication. I seed his sisters'
photos, and the girls was daisies — quite the
ladies.

"But, as I was a-sayin', 'e was a sea-
lawyer, and when he shipped in the W. H.
Smith he took it into 'is 'ead as she warn't
seaworthy, and was too deep, and he tried
to get us to skin out. i

'*Oh, but if Gordon 'ad the 'eavy 'and
(when it was wanted, Luker) 'e ad a tongue,
and he could make up any kind of a yarn
as easy as make sennit, and 'e'd work round

A MAN'S DEATH

of a man before 'e knowed it, and 'e'd
enough brass about 'im to sheet a cruising
frigate with.

'* Says 'e, one day, as we squatted in the
fo'c'sle of the W. H. Smithy for we went
aboard that time three days afore she sailed,
hell itself not being fuller of devils than
'Frisco was of sailors, and the skipper being
noways scared of our skipping. Says he —
Gordon, I mean — * This bloomin* old 'ooker
is a doomed craft, mates.'

** ' 'Ows that?' I arsts 'im, for 'e spoke
serious, and serious 'e looked.

"'She is,' says 'e ; 'she's that deep, and
they've got her by the 'ead now. And at
this season we shall get it stiff from the
north-east, and the seas out yonder, when
it do blow, why, they're short and steep,
and she'll dive, and, what's more, she'll never
come up no more.'

" ' You believe it } ' says a Dutchman.

*• * I do, solemn,' says Gordon. ' I met a
man as was shipmates in her on'y yesterday ;
and I says to 'im, " I'm in the W. H.
Smithy'' ^xadi 'e says, **Do you know her?"

65 £

^^^^^■IMP I m

THE RED BURGEE

And of course I answers, " No, what's
wrong ? " He screws his face up and says,
" Well, she's rather a wet ship." " Wet,
is that all ? " I answers, and then he says,
^' She's worse than the Leander as washed
over and killed more than seventy men in
five years." And, what's more, I believe
'im, and I'm going to sling it, and if you
bloomin' fools likes to go on a survey of
the North Pacific deep water soundings,
you may.'

" That was the way Gordon slung it at us.
And next day he gives us more. When I'd
got to know 'im I believed as the man 'e'd
met was never signed on no ship's papers.
For the matter of that, I reckon he never
met no one, nor ever 'eerd tell of the nature
of the old hooker.

'* But, Lord, 'ow he did pile it on, and
before we knowed it we'd all got a scare, and
we funked the very notion of going to sea in
her. You know, you chaps, 'ow it is with
men. After all, we're on'y like sheep, that's
my notion ; and I've worked with sheep in
Chile up beyond Santa Rosa de los Andes,

A MAN'S DEATH

where you started in my time for the Cumbre
Pass over into the Plate.

" So there we was in a panic, so to speak,
and when Gordon says * skip ' one night,
why, we was like kids at school, and over the
side we tumbled,

" And who d'ye think we jostled agin but
the skipper ?

" * What's all this ? ' 'e roars, for e 'ad a
voice, though not so bad in 'is nature for an
American shipmaster,

"And we shoves Gordon in front, and
'e lets out as we weren't on, and the skipper
gets mad, aid says, 'Oh, you ain't, ain't
you ? " And away 'e goes, and we goes into
Brown's on the Front for a drink. And when
we'd 'ad about three a policeman comes in,
and then more ; and the end of it was about
twenty took us off to the * 'Ouse of Correc-
tion,' where they corrected us on plank beds
and skilly and cocoa for forty-eight hours.
And they takes us on board with the irons on
our 'ands, Mr Billy Gordon among us.

" Laugh, you bet we laughed. It was a
mighty fine joke, and Gordon, 'e goes at the

THE RED BURGEE

'ead of the percession, walking vety proud,
but making the bobbies die of laughing. 'E
was a joker, and didn't mind it a bit.

*' So we came on board, and the skipper,
in his shore-going toggery and an 'igh 'at,
gives us what-for in the perlitest way, making
as if we was saloon passengers. And Gordon
says, ' Much obliged,' just as a gentleman
might. For, as I said, he was eddicated, and
his sisters was good to look at — quite the
lady, both of them.

" And out to sea we goes.

'* ' You mind your bloomin' stops,' says the
old man, *and bygones is bygones. Vou
was all skippers a while back, but I'm skipper
now, and I'll skip you if you ain't good and
smart. So now then, my bullies, you can
turn to. Calashee watch till we gets outside
the Gate.' For we lay off Goat Island
another forty-eight hours.

" You'd 'ave thought Gordon would 'ave
took it bad, being so euchred. But no, 'e
didn't I don't take no back seats when
sailorizing is on, not with no man, bar that
I'm not so quick as I was; but Gordon —

A MAN'S DEATH

Billy we called 'im then — was up to my mark
at everything, and over it on navigation, for
that I know'd nothing of. And 'e was as
quick as any cat, Til say that ; aloft as in jaw.
And no man could best 'im with his tongue.

" Howsoever, we 'ad a good time for about
three weeks, though the wind was light ; and
then it breezed up from the nor'-nor'-east, and
it began to look bad, She steered like a
'bus on a greasy road, and never a man but
funked his trick at the wheel, till one day —
and it was bad that day — Billy Gordon was
takin' her, and I had the lee wheel.

" • Steer small,' says the mate, a bit of a
hard nut, and Billy answers 'im, —

** ' If any man can steer small with *er
before the wind, Td like to meet 'im, sir,' says
'e, quite civil and anxious.

'• * Don't give me any back talk, sonny,'
says the mate ; and then the old man comes
up.

" * What's that, Gordon ? ' 'e arsts.

" * I said, sir, as no man could steer 'er
small before the wind and a 'eavy foUowin'
sea.'

THE RED BURGEE

*' ' I can/ says the old man, for 'e'd bin
'aving 'is morning, and was feelin' good.

"And with that Gordon steps out a bit
perlitely, and the skipper takes 'er from 'im ;
and Yates, the mate, lookin' as black as the
nor'-east quarter, took the lee wheel.

'* Gordon comes and stands by me, and 'e
damns my eyes quite for smilin'.

" * Look solemn, you bloomin' idiot,' says 'e,

" And solemn I looked, though the old
man was giving her twice the wheel that
Billy give er. And though he got 'er at last
fair in 'and, 'e 'ad two points off each way,
and no nearer for his life could 'e get her,
though 'e fair sweated.

'* Presently 'e turned to Yates.

" ' Would you like to try, Mr. Yates ? '
says 'e civil. But Yates was quite sober, and
'e was riled at the skipper givin' 'imself away,
and 'adn't no notion of doing it 'imself.

" ' Thank you, but no, Captain Greer,' says
'e, and with that the old man gives the wheel
up to Billy, who got her a deal closer than 'e
'ad.

*'And that night it blew a snorter that
70

A MAN'S DEATH

lasted full thirty-six hours. Some of you
chaps know what it was like, and some of you
don't. But the truth is, she was deep, and a
bit by the 'ead, and when she plunged, there
was the same 'eavy feelin' as a ship with half-
a-dozen feet of water in her,

"The second night was worse than the
first, and never a man turned in. Leastways,
no man took more'n 'is boots off. Though
what good, I dunno. If so be she W done
an Atalanta, we'd 'ave been left, for nothin'
could 'ave lived in the sea. It was get
through or bust, and it looked more like
busting, I must say. For when they could
'ave 'ove her to, they didn't.

** Billy and me stood most of the night just
aft of the deck-house, and with us was the
bo'son's mate. I never seed anyone so 'appy
as Billy was, for the worse it got, the more 'e
cheered up.

" * Let 'er rip,' says 'e, ' there ain't nothin'
like excitement. It'll be the death o' me
one of these days. What cheer ! go it, my
beauty ! '

" * O, dry up,' says the bo'son's mate, who
71

THE RED BURGEE

'ad the fear o' God in 'is 'eart. ' Shell go,
she'll go. And this time. Oh, Lord ! '

" And down went the W. H. Smith with
a plunge that made me a bit sick. And she
took it in over the 'ead, solid green it was,
and it came over from the topgallant fo'c'sle
three foot deep, roarin' like a cataract

" The skipper yelled out from the break of
the poop, and the bo'son's mate crawled aft,
hanging on to the rail.

" * Get a couple of canvas bags and oil,'
says the old man, ' and sling them over for-
ward from the cat'eads.'

** * Yes, sir,' says the bo'son's mate. And
me and Billy helps him.

'* ' Who's going to bell the cat'ead ? ' says
Billy. * For the man as goes on the fo'c'sle
'ead takes 'is bloomin' life in 'is 'and.'

" * Yes, that's it,' says the other chap, look-
in' pea-green by the light of the lamp in the
bo'son's locker.

*' And Billy laughs.

** * rU do one,' says 'e.

*' And 'e looks at me.

" He forced my 'and, mates. And though
72

A MAN'S DEATH

I felt sick enough to believe that even a
sailor-man's life was worth livin/ I says ' I'm
on for the other.' And then the bo'son's
mate looked a bit easier, and not so much like
a Calashee in cold weather.

"But I'm tellin' you, it was a pretty job.
It came out all right for me, for we waited
for a smooth, and, though it was as black as
the Earl of Hell's riding-boots, I nipped up
quick and got the bag fast, with no more
than one small sea over me. But the way
she felt, and the wind and the blackness,
rather cooled me down. And though I knew
Billy was close 'andy on the starboard side,
I couldn't see my 'and before my face. And
the roar of her when she rose was deafenin'.
But at last, back I come. I found the bo'son's
mate peepin' round the deck-'ouse, and
when I grabbed 'old of the rail there, says

''* Where's Gordon?'

** And just then she yawed and caught a
heavy one right on the port bow, and she
rolled to port and then right over again.
And near six foot of green water came over

THE RED BURGEE

the starboard rail amidships and filled'^er up
to the topgallant rail, and as she rolled again
it went over the port side. I 'ung on the
'and-rail aft of the deck-'ouse, and of a sudden
I was caught round the waist by the bo'son's
mate, as I thinks, and then, though I did
feel as if the W. H. Smith was a clean
goner, she began to recover, and got on an
even keel, and rose again. I catches hold
of the man as held me, and sets 'im on his
legs-

" * Oh, Bill/s gone ! ' I cries out ' He's
gone, he's gone ! '

" And the chap gasps. And then I seed
it wasn't the bo*son's mate at all. It was
Billy. He'd been washed overboard right at
the cat-head, and washed aboard again when
the big sea came over the starboard rail.

** He tells me that quick in my ear.

** * And where's Higgins ? '

**' Where?' says I.

" But we never seed 'im again. The sea

as put Billy on board took the bo'son's mate

over. And 'e wasn't the only man, for the

cook's mate went too, either then or later, and

■ 74

A MAN'S DEATH

the mate 'ad 'is leg busted agin the signal-
locker.

•' The oil forward did but little good. It
made a bit of a smooth between the whiskers
and the foremast, but not enough to stop the
sea comin' in further aft thick and 'eavy. And
the sea got worse and worse.

** 'Them little bags is just like spitting on
a burnin' kerosene cask to put it out/ says
Billy. * I'm goin' to get the two five-gallon
cans with the taps, and set 'em goin'
for'ard.'

" * How get 'em? ' I arsts. For Higgins had
took the keys with 'im.

"'Very careless of Higgins/ says Billy.
But he burst open the locker with a big splice-
bar, and he got out the cans and shoved 'em
in for'ard, in what Eyetalians calls retreaters,
and turned on the taps at a fair, good, steady
trickle.

" * Now I'd 'eard tell often of oil, and what
it does, but I never believed it before. After
Billy 'ad set it flowin* we never took a drop
aboard, and the quarter-deck fair dried up.
I went aft and stood under the poop-ladder,

.^y o C. '1 UL'l

toiicli-.'ind-o() when we put \

" 'Yes, sir,' says I. But
about Billy, and I 'alf forgo
Higgins was gone.

**And about four bells ii
watch we was quite through \
it, and the sea went down witl
come on then.

" But the bo'son was mad m
his locker burst open and the c

"He went aft flying, and i
plain to the skipper.

•' * Who done it ? ' says the o
Billy, beiog then at the wheel,

" ' I done it, sir.'

** * Then, by the tail of the sa
— saved the bloomin* ship,* say
' I thought it was them bagrs.'

(I r>.

A MAN'S DEATH

a 'ogs'ead of oil would smooth all that lies
between the Cape and the South Pole.

**At Ilo-Ilo, Billy skipped out, and he
ooked it off into New Guinea, and *ad three
years foolin' round. I met 'im again right
'ere in Hull, and then *e 'ad his mate's ticket.
We went one trip together, me bein' bo'son,
to St Petersburg and back. And two years
later 'e was mate of the Japan, and a thunder-
in' good man as mate 'e was.

" Work was what 'e loved, and when out
of a job 'e was sick. At sea 'e was merry, but
not to be played with by no means. Between
this time and his last trip with me, 'e was in
several lines, mostly in the Baltic, Mediter-
ranean and Black Sea trades. '£ was in
every port in the Mediterranean, and to
Batoum and Poti and Kertch, and Novoros-
sisk and Sulina and Galatz and I brail. But
what I started out to tell you chaps was our
trip to Reval this last time.

" We left this 'ere place just in about time
to get there when the ice broke up and there
was still plenty of it round. But the o\A Japan
was built for such work, and she ploughed

THE RED BURGEE

through ice that would have stove the
guts out of a common Mediterranean
fair-weather tramp. She came back right
enough, or mebbe I would not be talkin'
here. But just as we came away from Reval
most every one on board was queer. For that
rotten disease they calls influenza was layin'
'em out in Russia like the cholera. Before
we'd been three days at sea, the old man, a
thick-headed old snorter he was, was down
with it, hollerin' like a man with delirious
trimmings, and the third mate (she was a good
boat for the officers, and 'ad three watches),
he went down too. Criminy ! they was bad.
I 'ad a touch of it. And for three days I
wanted to die and get out of such a black
world. I 'adn't no more 'ope in me than if I
was in 'ell on a grid. Frying it was, and 'elp-
less as a kid. Why, man alive, I cried ! And
then the second mate 'e goes under, fair
knocked out ; a rag of a man 'e was at 'is best,
but no more in 'im when 'e 'urt himself than
in an old soup and bully tin. So poor Billy
Gordon *ad it all to 'imself.

''You chaps, for all youVe mostly chaps as
78

A MAN'S DEATH

never saw real tall water, knows what a
blasted 'ole the Baltic is when it is bad
weather. It was bitter then, and a north-
easter as sharp as a razor, that went through
a man. There was ice about even then, ice
in bergs, and small floes drifted out of rivers.
And it blew at least three-quarters of a gale
all the time.

" So you may guess that poor Gordon 'ad
an 'ell of a time on the bridge. What could
'e do with all the rest down ? Why, nothin',
as 'e said to me, but stick it out And 'e
stuck it out like a man, as 'e was, and as I
told you.

"Says I to him, 'For Gawd's sake sling
it, Mr. Gordon!' For I could see 'e was
sickenin' for the fla But he answers
angry.

"'And who'll be in charge of her.^"
says 'e.

" That night the fever got 'im. After 'e'd
bin six-and-thirty hours on the bridge, with
hardly a get-off for ten minutes all the while,
he calls me.

" ' I've got it at last,' he said ; ' now look
79

THE RED BURGEE

you *ere, Tom, I'm not going off. They're
all down, and none of yon knows nothing.'

" ' I knows the rule of the road/ I told 'im.
And he laughed.

" * You think so, sonny, but wait till you get
into the thick of it, and red lights and green
lights as mixed as a chemist's shop, and your
head '11 go. And so will the oXA Japan'

" And 'e stuck on the bridge till 'e just
couldn't stand. All the time the skipper was
as weak as a kid, and would weep if the
steward said a word to him 'e didn't like.
And the second and third were real bad too.
But I've my doubts if they was as bad as
Gordon.

" For now 'e was lyin' on that freezing
cold bridge, wrapped up in blankets, aching
in every limb, and just 'orrid to look at.
But 'e said, * Don't you touch me. Just you
tell me what's ahead.' I stood there most
of the time watching 'im and lookin' out.
And according as I told 'im what lights there
was, so 'e said, * Port ' or * Starboard ' ;
and then I saw as my rule of the road would
sometimes 'ave cured 'im and me and the

A MAN'S DEATH

others of the flu, and any other troubles, too,
for that matter.

" And now we was getting down to London
River, where we was bound. But some-
times I did think as Billy would go out before
we ever got in sight of the Nore, For he
couldn't hardly speak, and he looked just
pitiful and like a ghost. But he was true
grit, and never even moaned unless 'e slept
for a few minutes. And all the time 'e
should 'ave bin in 'is blankets, and even then
it was a chance for 'im. And at last he
fainted dead away, but not till I told 'im
there was a pilot boat nigh handy. The old
man was a river pilot, and so they didn't
look for us to take one. But Billy says
to signal for one, and he fainted as I rung
the telegraph for them to ease 'er down.

''When the pilot came on board, I took
Billy in my arms — a skeleton 'e was — ^and
carried 'im down below. I knew *e'd never
get over it ; and he never did. 'E died in-
side of a week or so, one of his sisters wrote
and told me. She was a regular lady, and I
kept *er letter by me a long time, until I got

8i F

THE RED BURGEE

drunk and lost it. But if I did, it couIdn^t
be 'elped, and she sent me Billy's likeness.
He was what I call a man, and not a thing
in the shape of a man. 'E could 'it 'ard,
and swear 'ard, and, at the right time, drink
'ard ; but 'e knowed 'is work as few blooming
officers knows theirs. And, when ninety-
nine men out of a 'undred would 'ave caved
in, 'e stuck there and done 'is duty ; knowin*,
if a man could know, as it would be 'is death.
A man, I say, he was. And if 'e did wipe
you over the 'ead with a stopper, I dessay
you desarved it, Luker."

" I dessay, too," said Luker. " I never
said as 'e wasn't a good man. It takes a
good man to 'it me."

" I done it myself," said Hillyard.

'* Well, did I hever say you didn't ? " asked
Luker. ** But there ain' no other bloomin'
swine in this room as can say the same."

As they were all sober, and mostly Dutch-
men, nothing came of the challenge.

*'Hark! don't it blow?" said one. And
the deadly north-easter roared down the
dismal street.

IN A WINDJAMMER

The Acapulco, a clipper-built barque of 1560
tons register, was homeward bound, and a
good bit to the nor'ard of the Horn. The
season was coming well on to spring in those
latitudes, that is to say, it was September,
and the Acapulco had come booming with
squared yards between Cape Horn and the
Diego Ramirez Islands. But no sooner was
she headed for the north-east than the
weather changed, and ripped out into an un-
expected north-easterly snorter, with heavy
rain accompanying it. And with the rain
came a little sharp sleet to sting up the men
and make them growl. Yet for all that, as
the barque lay over on the port tack, she
meant getting home, and swashed through
it at a good ten knots an hour, taking in
heavy seas every now and again, some
of which came through the scuttle of the

THE RED BURGEE

foc'sle head and dripped upon the salty
crowd below.

'' Ain't she just a bloomin' hog," said Jack
Husband, as he prepared to change his soak-
ing toggery for the third time that day;
'* she don't know when she's had enough."

" There's more than the old Acapulco like
that," grunted Jim Graves, who was for ever
digging his knife into some one, though he
favoured more especially the man who had
just spoken. " When some of us gets the
pavement under our 'oofs, it'll be mighty
chancy walking. And all for not knowing
what's enough."

" You boil your head," retorted Jack, "get
into a sack, do, and dump your ugly carcass
over the rail You've as much jaw as a
sheep's head, and you ain't worth so much,
no, not by the price of it."

And just then, as luck would have it, to
spoil an interesting conversation with good
promise of a row in it, the mate sang out,
" Starboard main-brace," and the word was
passed forward to the foc'sle where the men
were taking shelter from the rain. The

IN A WINDJAMMER

watch streamed out on deck in gleaming oil-
skins and trimmed the yards. But it was
mostly "a dry pull," for they hardly gained
an inch. And dry pulls sharpen up the
men's tempers, if they do nothing else.

Just after supper, in the second dog-watch,
Graves and Husband got at it again. For
the supper had been a feed bad enough to
sicken a pariah dog, because the galley had
been swept clear in the afternoon by a heavy
sea. Every one was savage, but these two
were the champion grumblers of the ship.
They were antidotes to each other in a mea-
sure, and acted as safety valves.

" Did you ever see or taste or smell such
ogwash of coffee ? " asked Graves. ** What
kind of a ship is this, any'ow ? "

" It's like a penitentiary, ain't it ? " shoved
in Husband, seeing his chance. '' Bbtmebbe
you'd like cocoa better."

And Graves growled angrily, for he had
been jugged in San Francisco the voyage
before for assaulting the police.

"It warn't the penitentiary ; it was the
'Ouse of Correction," he muttered.

THE RED BURGEE

" Ah, you see, /didn't knowthe difference,"
was his enemy's retort. " There's some men
as ought to stay at home and be fed pap
with a spoon. The Sailors' Home is about
as near the sea as some men ought to
get."

** It*s better than Jackson's Boarding
'Ouse, you can bet on that," said Graves.

And then the whole watch argued soberly
the whole subject of Homes versus Boarding
Houses, until two bells.

But then another row began.

"What's that you say about mugs in
Well Street Sailors' 'Ome ? " asked Graves,
bristling up.

** I said as I didn't want to drink out of
mugs like a kid," answered Jack Husband.

**They don't use no mugs there," said
Graves, '* they use cups."

And Husband sneered.

** Gah'n. I tell you it's mugs, and more'n
that, they sleep you in boxes up an iron
cage. And a pretty kind of a doss-house.
It's most like a gaol as / knows of."

But that did not touch Graves at all. He
86

IN A WINDJAMMER

was far too keen about the mugs to mind the
implied insult.

They went off into the argument like two
rival bulls in one paddock, and appealing for
supporters, each got so many that mere
weight of opinion could not settle the point.
Then they applied the deductive method.

'•It ain't likely as they'd give mugs to
men, now is it? "asked Graves, defiantly.
"They'd give 'em to kids. Now what I
want to know is, would they give 'em to
sailormen ? No, it ain't likely. Why, men
would smash 'em. I would, you bet." But
Husband met his argument by violating his
own prejudices.

** I ain't got no bloomin' objection to mugs
as mugs," said he. " It's only as I think they
believes 'em cheaper."

" What ? " asked Graves, " you don't mind,
you? You're a liar, that's what you are."

" I ain't no liar, and don't you call me so,"
cried Husband.

And then Graves fell into the fallacy of
particular induction, by declaring because he
himself objected to mugs all men must

THE RED BURGEE

" But," said Husband, " you might as well
say that because you don't mind going to
gaol, all men don't mind."

This roused Graves to such a pitch of fury
that nothing could sooth him but being
allowed to tell the whole entire story of the
fight which led to his temporary seclusion in
the House of Correction in San Francisco.

" And I did object to being jugged, and it
wam't me as started the bloomin' row on
Sacramento Street," said he, irrelevantly.
•* And if I did object to bein' in, why, your
bloomin' hargument ain't worth shucks, and
you're a liar, that's what you are, as I said
before."

And he added some remarks which im-
plied, not wholly remotely, that Husband
was something much worse than a son of a
sea-cook, and the descendant of swine. The
result of this was obvious, there was only
one answer.

" Take that," said Husband, and he smote
Graves upon the nose. They rose up and
fought, and fell down and struggled, and
some of the crowd said, ** Part 'em," and

IN A WINDJAMMER

some said, " Let 'em fight." And they were
allowed to struggle till both got mauled, and
nobody was best man.

When peace was at last restored, Husband
went in for a long and rambling induction,
and showed that in most Homes cups were
known to be used. And that, therefore —
but just then eight bells struck, and the
bo'son piped, ** Hands shorten sail."

For it was breezing up very heavily and
even the reefed foresail was too much for the
Acapuko.

THE GOLD MINE OF KERTCH
BAR

Two men were sitting on a wooden seat and
staring out over the Humber. Their point
of vantage is one well known at Hull, for
there is a flagstaff there and many seats, and
one can spy the whole river and New
Holland at the other side, and the vessels
and tugs going up and down on the swift
tide betwixt the Spurn and Goole.

Suddenly one of the men pointed with his
finger at a vessel hanging in the stream.

" You see that barque, Bill ? " he said.

" Well, and what of her, Ben ? "

**Why this," said Ben solemnly — **But
first where does she hail from ? "

" I should say she s a Nova Scotian/* said
Bill. '* It's hobvious."

Ben nodded.

** She was built at Halifax, and she's come
90

THE GOLD MINE OF KERTCH BAR

to Hull, and it's my opinion she'll end in
Hell. And from Hull, Hell and Halifax,
good Lord deliver us ! "

" And what for ? " asked Bill.

** She's owned by a widow woman," said
Ben earnestly, ** wot never had no luck — not
with her husband nor nothing. I knowed
her out there, and she's always in black, and
comes aboard, and it's agin the rights of
things for her to do that same, and give the
crew the hump with such a black send-off."

Bill snorted.

** You're as full of superstitious rot, Ben,
as a cat You believe in Lapland witches,
and in Finns, and in Flying Dutchmen, and
in every foolishness as ever got sailormen
laughed at ashore." ^

"And why not — why not?*' asked Ben
gloomily. '• I tell you I've seed the Flying
Dutchmen ; and as to Finns, in my last ship,
her as I skinned out of here, there was a
Finn, and if he was sulky the wind was foul,
and if he was pleased it was fair."

Bill, who was a cockney, cured in New
York, gave a snort, and pulled a plug of

THE RED BURGEE

black cavendish out of the breast-pocket of
his monkey-jacket

" Mebbe he wanted to get there, matey,"
he said. " Now, suppose you was just dyin'
for a chew, and I kind of offered you this
yer plug ; you d smile, wouldn't you ? And
then, if I said, ' No, you don't ! ' and planted
it again in my pocket, you'd look mighty
sick, wouldn't you ? "

Ben turned and stared at him.

"What are you getting at, with all this
foolishness about terbacker ? What's that
to do with Finns ? "

" Why, this," said his mate. " What I'm
saying, and if youll just dry up and listen,
you'll see, is this. That it wouldn't be your
bloomin' smile or your sick looks as'd make
me give it or not give it, but my giving it or
not giving it as would make you look sick or
not"

Ben shook his head at this laborious logic.

"Well, and what the blazes has all this
rigmarole about a chew to do with Finns and
wind ? " he asked pityingly.

"Can't you see as how the Finn might,
92

THE GOLD MINE OF KERTCH BAR

just as well as any hother man, look black
with a contrary breeze, and pleased when it
was fair ? " Bill retorted.

But Ben shook his head again.

" It ain't no argument." he said, " for as I
told you when he turned sulky, the wind
changed. I could bring you ten men, not to
speak of a cook, as would take their oath to
it in any court of law. And I wasn't guffing,
anyhow, about Finns or any other kind of
Dutchmen, nor of Dagos, but of a widder
woman in black coming to see a ship out of
dock."

Bill looked rather mollified as Ben did not
insist on the Finns.

"Well, I'm with you there," he said;
"but then women is bad luck anyway,
black or white. I was yarning with a 'bus
conductor the other day, and he says,
•What's coming to the women I don't
know. They won't put their 'and to a
thing the same as their mothers, and
some thinks they can drive a 'bus.'
That's what he said, and it stands to
reason a 'bus conductor should know a lot

places," he said earnestly,
what call have they to own
seem natural for a womai
No, it doesn't, of course,
the wife of a captain if she 1

** I knowed a captain's v
him proper," said Bill. ** 1
the mast afterwards, and
I've heard him spin us a cuf

Ben reached out his h
extracted the plug of tob
coat, and having torn off a
his teeth, returned it.

" And what was the yam
his eyes followed the bar
started the talk, round the
town.

THE GOLD MINE OF KERTCH BAR

But the chief thing he and others hung on
to for getting more than his pay, was what he
called the gold mine of Kertch Bar — "

Ben shook his head.

"That won't do," he said, "for I know
better than that. Kertch ain't in the Baltic."

" Where is it, then ? " asked Bill defiantly.

" It's in the Black Sea or thereabouts,"
answered Ben vaguely.

"Black Sea or Baltic is all the same to
me," said Bill, "as I've never sailed in
neither, and never will, if I knows it. But
I'm telling you. He called it the Kertch
Bar Gold Mine, and 'ow they did 'ave the
owners was just a treat. For you see it was
just this way. If I don't know Kertch, why,
I may be wrong in small particulars ; but
the chief thing about it is its beastliness and
its bar. And the way that bar shifted was a
fair miracle. Trainer was his name, the
name of this 'ere skipper, and he said that,
accord in* to what the owners thought of it,
the bar walked from this side or that, and
just plumped itself down in the fairway.
And the pore harbour people, they was

and then it was telce;r<ipHin'
slic'd took the L;Toiind and nui
And out comes lighters, and t
then tugs, and they pulls, and
'eaves 'er off and fills her up
times a skipper would be that
get stuck twice running, and th
out the vessels with the least
that was no manner o' use, :
said, and laughed when 'e s;
was that treacherous as to r
night and shove a two-by-four
and dry. And, as you may {
Kertch Bar got a bloomin' b<
if it hadn't been that they '{
owners would have seen Kertc
And some did, but the resist

THE GOLD MINE OF KERTCH BAR

" * I darsn't do it this trip/ says one. And
a pilot as belonged to Kertch give him a
liquon And bimeby some men as owned
the lighters came in, and then some o' the
'arbour authorities. The drink went off like
hot cakes, and one took to daring the other.

** * I dare if you dare/ says one.

"'You'll blow the gaff/ says another.
' Don't kill the goose what lays the golden
heggs/

*' But after a drink or two more the careful
one's was guffin* about the times they had
been caught by the bar.

** ' Seven times I done it/ says one. And
a pilot wot talked good English he said the
one as 'd done it most was the skipper of a
Swansea boat, who'd been on nineteen times.

*' 'And good biz, too,' yells out another.
* I know him. A good careful hofficer, so
his owners say, but a bit unlucky at Kertch.
And he's fair rotten with his money for a
man of his sort."

**And that night afore they'd done they
was ready for hanything. Next morning
there was nine vessels 'ard and fast in the

97 G

THE RED BURGEE

sand, and the telegraphs was working, and
nine lots of howners and hunderwriters was
cussin' their lucki and the shippin' papers
had lots to say about the wicked kind of
hanchorage there was at Kertch. And all
the bloomin' time it was the coolest kind of
put-up job as you ever see.

"And that was the time as Trainer got
left. And I'll tell you how it was. He had
to take the money for that time and the
time before, and he shoves it into a henvel-
ope and sends it to his wife. It was full
heighty-pounds ; if I don't misremember, it
was heighty-two pound ten ; and 'e didn't
care about keeping it by 4m, for 'e was apt
to go ashore and get blind, as is the way with
'em when no one's by. And fat and jolly
and laughin' he gets on board and goes off
with his height-knot iron box 'ome. But
when he reached Hull — yes, this yer very
port — he looks very sick. This was how it
happened.

'* Trainer's wife was a thin, worrying
woman, and that narvous with his carryin's
on, and the wind blowin' — for all women, as

THE GOLD MINE OF KERTCH BAR

you know, thinks it blows 'ard all the
world hover at the same time — that she
couldn't stand so much rhino in the 'ouse
at once.

" She thought as burglars from all parts of
the country would smell it and come down
'er little back street and crawl in and get it
out of her mattress. So she takes it out o'
there and sews it in her dress, and then she
thinks she'll fall down in a fit and be robbed
at a 'ospital, or that a fire would break out
special and burn up the bloomin' neighbour-
hood. And at last, with sitting up awake all
night watching her gown 'anging behind 'er
locked door, she got that scared that she ups
and hoffs down to the howner's office ; and,
going right up to the very 'ead boss, whom
she runs agin in the alleyway, she allows as
'ow she's Mrs. Trainer.

" * And what do you want, Mrs. Trainer? '
says 'e, perlite enough.

'* Then she let's him 'ave it, and hinforma-
tion fair runs out of 'er. She tells him about
the money as Trainer 'ad sent^ and she arsked
him to keep it for her.

THE RED BURGEE

"'Where did it come from?' says the
howner.

** * From Kertch, sir — ^at least, I think so,
but it*s in the letter.'

*^ She 'ands it over just as she picked it
out of her gown.

"'And 'ow much?' says he, laughing,
thinking, I guess, that a ten-pound note
wouldn't make him nervous.

" ' Heighty pound hodd,' says she. And
never till harfterward did she remember 'ow
»e jumped.

"''Heighty pound! Why, that's a lot
of money,' says he. And then, saying,
* Excuse me just one moment,* 'e goes
out.

" He come back agin in five minutes,
laughin', but still serious.

"'We'll take care of it for you, Mrs.
Trainer,' says he, * but I should *ave thought
as 'ow you'd have been used to gettin' money
from your 'usband by this.'

" That was 'is trap, and the silly woman
goes right into it like a sheep. And never
knowed it till afterwards.

100

THE GOLD MINE OF KERTCH BAR

** ' Oh, yes, sir,' she says smiling, * but not
so much as this.'

** * Then how much does he usually send
from Kertch ? ' asks he, laughing again.

" * Oh, never much more than fifteen or
twenty,' says she. *And that's enough to
make a lone woman nervous of losing it."

** * Yes,* said 'e, showing his teeth ; * it's
not nice bein' robbed. But we'll see no one
but the owner gets this,* says 'e. And then
she goes out, thanking *im profuse, and tells
all 'er neighbours wot a nice kind man *e is.

" But I guess 'e *ad gone out and *ad a
talk with another bloomin' nice kind man.
And they just whacked it to her proper, and
then went on to find hout *ow it was that
Trainer got so much rhino over his pay.
For they knew that private trade wasn't
nothing out there, and they didn't reckon
Trainer had been speckylatin* in Kertch
town lots.

"And Trainer, who was comin' *ome,
'uggin *imself about that lump of stealage,
never thought so much as once of what a
fool 'e *ad been to send it to her, just sayin',

TilU i:cdK LOliIxGli*
11, WESTERU ROK^>

THE RED BURGEE

' Keep it till I get back/ Many a time IVe
*eard 'im say he could go out and bang 'is
nut on the steam winch or a bollard to think
that six words more in his letter would have
done it, and 'eM still 'ave been gettin' gold
out of Kertch, But them words was never
wrote, and when he gets into Hull River,
afore he docks the howner comes on board

'' ' Bad luck again this time, captain ? ' says
'e, cheerful like.

" And Trainer touches *is 'at

" ' Yes, sir, we was very hunfortunate
again so far; but we got off without no
damage, not a strain,' says he. * And it's I
that would be glad never to see Kertch
again.'

" Going into the cabin they sits down.

" * And is it so very bad ? ' asks the owner,
innocent ' And what is the reason of the
bar shiftin' so ? '

" * Hask me another, sir,' says Trainer,
Mf you'll excuse me saying so, sir. But
going in and out of Kertch it's guess work to
the best of pilots. And what them pilots
don't know ain't worth knowin'.'

102

THE GOLD MINE OF KERTCH BAR

" With that he winks to himself, and as he
told us, *e felt that clever *e could *ave split
with laughin'.

** ' It's a bloomin' nasty trade/ says the
owner, kind of sighin'/

" ' It is that/ says Trainer. And seeing the
man so soft and sweet, it just catches 'old of
him that 'e might get a rise of a couple of
pounds a month.

** ' It is that,' says he, sighin' too, ' a
bloomin' nasty trade, sir. And very trying is
the Black Sea at times. It's not like the
Mediterranean, where a man can live cheap
and well.'

** * Why no,' says *e, careless. • Then you
don't find it a savin' trade any more than
us?'

" * Saving I ' says Trainer, kind of sorrow-
ful. ' It takes all a man's pay to find *im in
clothes. I ain't saved two-pound-ten in a
year.'

" And with that the bloomin' howner, a
big, tall man, said Trainer, just rises off his
seat and stares Trainer in the face like a
judge.

103

THE RED BURGEE

" ' Then, Mr. Trainer/ says *e, in a voice
like a lower topsail goin' out of the bolt ropes,
''Ow did you make that hextra heighty
pounds as you sent to your wife ? * says he.

" And with that Trainer says the stuffin*
was clean knocked out of 'im, and he felt like
a hempty sack with nothing in it He just
sat down.

" * What do you mean, sir ? * says he.

'' But the owner walked round to him.

" * I means that money you sent* ome from
Kertch,* says he ; ' and afore you go ashore
I means to *ave the truth out of you.*

'* He pulls Trainer's own letter out of 'is
pocket, which the wife had give *im with the
posh, and spread it out before him.

" * Hexplain,' says he, very stern.

" And at that Trainer give right in, though
afterwards he grinds *is teeth at not thinkin'
of a good tale. He could *ave said it was a
legacy from a dead haunt or huncle, or *ave
pitched somethin* to the man to shut 'im up.
But *e couldn't think, and could only cuss *is
wife, poor woman ! *E looks up at the
howner standing there grinning.

104

THE GOLD MINE OF KERTCH BAR

" ' The truth or the polis/ said *e.

*'"Ow did you get it?* asks Trainer.
Afid *e told him.

" ' But the question is 'ow did you get it ?
says the owner.

" ' It was give me,' says Trainer, pluckin'
up.

" ' Who give it to you ? ' says the owner.

" ' The lighterage folks at Kertch/ says 'e
kind of silly.

" ' Oho ! * says the howner, and *e sits down
by Trainer. ' Now, Mr. Trainer,* says *e
more kind, ' there may be nothin* in this, and
I may be mistook ; but if you don't make a
clean breast of it all, I'll give you in charge ;
for that there's somethin' in this that I and
the hunderwriters ought to know, that I'm
sure, and know I will — yes, if I 'ave to go to
Kertch and work it up myself.'

" ' Do you mean it ? ' says Trainer foolish**
like, and with that he give way and let it
hout

'* * But first,' says 'e, * you won't prose-
cute ? Because if you're goin' to do that I'll
say nothing.'

IDS

THE RED BURGEE

" And the howner says, ' No, not if you'll
tell the Bible truth/

" * Well/ says *e, and e* says when 'e began
'e could 'ardly 'elp laughin/ 'in the first
place there ain't nothin' wrong with Kertch
Bar/

" * What do you mean ? • says the owner.

'' * I means just what I says/ answers
Trainer, stubborn, * there ain't nothin* wrong
with the bar. As a bar it*s all right, and no
worse than other bars, and better a deal than
some. It's a good steady bar — ^

*' ' And don't shift ? ' asks the owner.

** * Not more than in reason,' says Trainer,
* and according to a gale or the time of year
just like any bother bar/

" * Then why did you get on it ?^ says the
howner.

" * It was the pilots,' says Trainer, * and
the 'arbour folks, and hus. It was a put-up
job, that's what it was. And what we paid
the tugs and the lighters and the pilots they
give us commission on it. And that's the
gospel truth, sir.'

"And the howner chap was that surprised
1 06

THE GOLD MINE OF KERTCH BAR

he reached up for a glass in the rack and
took a drink of spirrits neat.

"'Well, I'm 'anged!' says 'e, 'and for
years we've bin payin' for double lighterage
and for hextra towage and all sorts of
bloomin' things. Who started this 'ere
racket ? '

"•It was started afore my time,' says
Trainer, rather sulky again, * When I got
there it was in full swing. And if you give
me away as 'aving told you, my life's not
worth as much as a loose bit of brasswork in
a Danube port That's what it ain't. For
they calls it the Kertch Bar Gold Mine, and
gammons to hold shares in it.*

'"I'll not give you away,' says the howner
stem enough ; ' but I reckon you don't sail
no more vessels in which I 'ave any
hinterest*

And though Trainer felt sick at that, 'e
knew *e ought to be jugged for conspiracy,
as the bother told *im. So it was a let-off
just to get the sack, even if jobs were tough
gettin'. And that was the bust up of that
racket I guess Trainer took it out of 'is
107

THE RED BURGEE

wife, for 'e owned that she went to live with
*er mother for a month when he got 'ome.

" But 'e got no more vessels to command,
for when it came out 'ow the Kertch Bar
business 'ad been worked, the men that was
sacked gave Trainer the worst kind of a
name. And gradual he came down again
to sail before the mast That's what a
woman did for 'im."

" It warn't her fault/' said Ben — " not hers at
all. It was him that was to blame. Whatkindof
a man is it to give a woman money to keep ? ''

" Well, I can't keep none myself," owned
Bill; "or else I wouldn't be looking for a
ship. If I could find a woman wot would
keep it and make it last longer, I'd take 'er on.'*

"Not you," said Ben. ** A sailorman ain't
got no more business to be married till he
swallows the anchor than a woman has to
own a ship. And as for that barque that's
just gone out, you mark me, she'll be lost."

" All along of the widder in black ? " asked
Bill,

•* All along of her," replied Ben, stubbornly.

And they went up town.
io8

ON A TAUT BOWLINE

** Come, get out the spun-yarn winch," said
Tom the foretopman to his mate.

And Jack grinned as the lazy crowd
approved from their bunks and chests in the
foc'sle of the Winchester.

** I guess it's not Sunday if Jack doesn't
reel off a cuffer. Come, you brancher and
climber, give it lip," said Tom.

For Jack Gray was for ever yarning, and
one of his long nicknames was "That re-
minds me." A legend which he had never
contradicted told how the Captain of the
Loch Vennachar^ who was reported to write
stories, had taken him on as second mate
one trip, just to hear him gas. For
though . he was then in the foc'sle, he
had a second greaser's ticket and was as
good aft as forward save for a real
natural gift of insubordination which more
109

.•a
THE RED BURGEE

than once landed him in the arms of a
policeman.

" It*s a sight too hot to work the winch,"
said Jack as he wiped his forehead. '' I
haven't any imagination,"

"Then tell the truth for once," said
Mcintosh, the oldest hand on board. " That
last yarn of youm about the old BcUtle-axe
was too much for me. I felt sea sick."

" Dry up, you old humbug," said Jack,
laughing, ** any one of yours would lay over
the broadest of mine, acres on each side.
But did I ever tell you chaps about Suther-
land of the Commonwealth, the chap they
called * Three-fingered Jack ? ' "

And the whole crowd said, " No ! "

" Well, this is true," said Jack.

And the whole crowd said, " Oh ! "

**You be damned," said Jack. "But all
the same it is."

"It was four years ago, or may be five,
I'd just come back from the States where I'd
been working on a farm, thinking I'd had
enough of the sea. And I had till Td had
too much of the farm, which is the way with

110

ON A TAUT BOWLINE

sailormen. And that reminds me 111 tell
you about that farm some day.

" But as I was saying, I'd come home from
the States, and being the very deadest kind
of dead broke, all my folks were a bit chilly
and gave me to understand that they had at
last made up their minds I was no good.
And the old man he stood in front of the fire
and went on about my opportunities which
I'd wasted, in spite of his hiding me when I
was a kid, and the girls seemed to think I
ate too much, and they sniffed at the smell of
my tobacco. So I up and said I saw a fine
opening for a bright young man in a slum
down east, and I hooked it off to Sailor-
town and tramped very lonesome all over the
East India Dock. May be some of you
chaps have heard of it, and have cooled
yourselves on a big stone bollard by its
gleaming waters."

"Go on," said the outraged crowd, "and
don't talk rot."

" Well, never mind the poetry," said Jack,
" you're uneducated, and don't see the beauty
of it. Of course I could have shoved in
III

THE RED BURGEE

somewhere, but I wanted a craft bound for
Australia or New Zealand. And I had to
wait till I tumbled across the Commonwealth^
whose skipper was Sutherland. When I had
shipped they told me that he was one of the
worst men sailing out of the port of London.
For he was a bully and a drunkard. How-'
ever, I didn't care. I guessed I could manage
the passage in her any rate, and I meant to
skip in Port Lyttleton.

**We saw nothing of him till we were
about letting go the tug boat, but then this
blooming amiable historic character crawled
on deck and began loosing off language that
made the lady passengers fairly flinch and
sent them below. He was a big strong
beggar, but soaked in liquor and a bit of a
wreck with it He looked more given to
drink than when I saw him at Green's
Home. And then he was civil. However,
it was only in the beginning of his drinks
that he troubled us. For when he was really
under way he would retire to his own quarters
and not show up for weeks. Only the
steward saw him, and he had a blazing bad

I 12

ON A TAUT BOWLINE

time of it. When we were running down
our easting he never came on deck for three
weeks, the shirking old scoundrel. And we
had a pretty bad spell of it too.

'' There was a nice kind of a companion
for him on board though, a Sydney woman,
I forget her name, but she drank too. And
they carried on shameful. Two old maiden
ladies named Wilson used to go into hysterics
about it, they were so scandalised. And
there was blue blazes to pay, for they abused
the captain to his face and cut the Sydney
woman, and talked at her, till one day she
flew at them and upset the pair over a hen-
coop and then retired sobbing to lay a com-
plaint before the skipper.

** And the old man who was stretched out
on the floor of his cabin said, * Eh, eh, what's
that ? ' And then he slept again and mur-
mured loving words to a bottle of square
face. At least that's what the steward said.

** But after that he began to recover a bit,

and we knew we'd have him on deck. Only

we didn't guess how he'd come, and in what

shape, and if the mate had known he'd have

113 H

THE RED BURGEE

kept clear of him, you bet For the chief
was an Austrian and as quiet as a sick sheep,
with never a word out of him except when
he worked the ship.

'* But this day (I remember I was killing
time on the main topsail yard cutting off
seizings and shoving on new ones) we heard
a devil of a how-d'ye-do down below, and a
woman or two screaming. And then the
mate shot up out of the companion in such a
hurry as I've never seen. And after him
came the skipper, purple-faced with passion
and whisky, with a cutlass in his fist, running
like blazes. The women folk on the poop
yelled blue murder and the men turned white
and skipped out of the way. And the mate
fell down the ladder, screaming for help in
high Dutch and low Dutch and English
mixed, and as he scrambled to his feet again
the skipper almost came on top of him.

" * rU give you argument,' screamed
Sutherland, * I'll give you argument.'

" So then I guessed, what was correct, that
they had argued over the bally arithmetic of
an observation. For we heard after that
114

ON A TAUT BOWLINE

Three-fingered Jack broke the slate over the
mate's head before he got his cutlass.

"I'd never believe the old man could have
run as he did. But he wasn't more than six
inches out of striking distance as they made
up the starboard side to the forehatch. Then
the mate caught his foot in a ringbolt that
I'd often bashed my big toe against, and fell
full length. Every one on deck let a yell
out of him then, for the skipper raised his
weapon and was just about bringing it down
on the poor helpless devil's head. I leant
over the yard and slung my marlinspike at
him. But it missed. And just then the
bo'son, who had been standing alongside the
foremast, stepped out and hit the old man
square on the ear with such force that he fell
like a sack of flour. He never moved, and
the bo*son grabbed the cutlass and hove it
overboard.

"It took him some time to come to; and
the bo'son retired gracefully to the rear.

"'What's this?' says Sutherland pre-
sently. And then he sings out * Steward.'
And after a bit he opened his eyes and
115

THE RED BURGEE

staggered to his feet and went aft as quiet as
you like. And what's more he never said
anything about it. I often wondered if he
knew what had happened, for he had another
week's drinking then.

" I heard the second mate, who was an
Englishman and a good officer, speak to the
mate :

" * rU help you lock him up and take
charge,' said he.

" But Dutchy shook his head. He was a
poor weak-minded fool without the guts of a
new-born mouse. If it hadn't been for
Graham, the second, we'd have run the
Contfnonwealth ourselves. But Graham had
grit in him and savvy and didn't really care
a damn for the skipper. For that night in
the middle watch, when I left the wheel at
four bells he called me as I was going of!
the poop.

" * I want you to lend me a hand, Gray
Go and call the bo'son.'

" So I roused out the bo'son, and Graham
gave him charge of the deck. Then we
went down and together we took all the
ii6

ON A TAUT BOWLINE

arms out of the racks in the cabin and locked
them up. Then we corralled all the liquor
we could find and locked them up too, not
that it was much good to do it, for the
captain had a private store, and we couldn't
very well take that without the consent and
assistance of the mate.

"Up to this time I'd never come into
collision with the skipper, although my mar-
linspike nearly had But of that he knew
nothing. Then it came round again for my
turn for the first wheel in the middle watch ;
it was blowing pretty stiff and we wore under
fore and maintopsails and reefed foresail.
The wind was well out on the port beam and
there was a heavy sea running.

"Just about two bells the second mate,
whose watch I was in, came up to me.

" ' I'm going to take the jib in,' said he,
' so just keep her before the wind, and mind
you don't let her come to till I tell you.'

" And down he went off the poop. I ran
her off till the wind was on the back of my
neck, when all of a sudden I got a crack
there too, which nearly knocked me silly.

117

THE RED BURGEE

But as I looked round wondering what the
blazes it was, I saw the skipper, who had
crawled up and sneaked round behind. And,
thinking she shouldn't be running before the
wind, he hit me without even saying 'what
the — how the — ,' or asking 'why I had her
that way ? '

" By the Lord but I was mad. I was fair
furious at being struck in such a cowardly
manner, and without counting costs I let go
the wheel and returned the blow with interest
right between his eyes, blacking them finely,
as I found out afterwards. He never
reckoned I would dare, for he didn't attempt
to ward it off nor to return it. He just said
* Oh,' and ran for the companion which was
at the forward end of the poop. I stood for
one moment kind of silly, but I felt he was
after a weapon, and if he'd tried to slaughter
the mate for an argument, what would he do
for such a jog between his eyes ? And I was
mad too and clean forgot the men on the
jib-boom. I jumped forward like a cat and
got to the companion first and clapped my
back to it. When he saw his way barred he
ii8

ON A TAUT BOWLINE

squared up and made at me, but just at that
moment she gave a heavy lurch and upset
his balance a little and that gave me an
opening. I landed him heavily right under
the chin and back he went with his heels
against the bucket rack and overended right
over the low rail. I had disposed of him
satisfactorily, and I ran back to the wheel,
thinking that for one watch he wasn't likely
to do any more sneaking round.

" But during the few seconds that I'd been
away from the wheel, the ship had come up
in the wind and the sails were shaking a
good one, and the second mate was roaring
as he came aft. I hove the helm hard up
and was only just in time to save her from
broaching to altogether. As she filled, the
second mate came up on the poop in a devil
of a rage, as well he might be, asking if I
wanted to take the masts out of her and wash
the men off the boom. I might have justi-
fied myself, but I preferred to take his jaw
until I found out whether the old man had
broken his neck or not Though I hadn't
wanted to kill him, still, if he was dead, it
119

THE RED BURGEE

might occasion a lot of trouble if folks knew
how it had happened.

"So I sang very small, and took all
Graham said like a lamb. And that
soothed him. He went forward and finished
his job. But he was a good while gone, and
I heard some talk presently on the quarter-
deck.

*' When he came up on the poop he took
a few turns up and down and then walked
up to me. Standing with his back against
the hub of the wheel, he took a look into the
binnacle and asked :

*' ' Did you see anything of the captain
while I was forward ? *

" * Why, no, sir,' said I promptly enough.

*' * He must have been up here,* said
Graham, * for as I was coming along the
quarter-deck just now I stumbled over him.
Mr. Schmidt is with him now, but Tm
hanged if I don't believe he's croaked.'

" That gave me the jumps. Thought I

* I might be hanged if he is*

** ' Or pretty near it,' went on Graham,

* for he's cut bad and knocked quite stiff. I

I20

ON A TAUT BOWLINE

suppose he's been at it again and got paid
for his soak.'

" However, the beggar wasn't dead or even
near it, and in the morning he turned up on
deck quite sober and pretty quiet. And the
strangest thing of the lot is that he did this
time just what he'd done before when the
bo'son outed him with that jolt on his ear-
hole ; he kept quiet and said nothing, not a
word. But till we reached Port Lyttletoa I
wasn't easy. A man that'd come behind
another and plug him as he did me once
might do it again. And though maybe he
really didn't remember when he was sober,
he might remember when he got drunk
again, for in the States I was partners with
a tough who was built that way. And that's
iust what really happened with Sutherland.

" Perhaps it was the scare he got by his
trip over the break of the poop that kept him
off soaking, but he was as sober as a pint of
lime-juice for most of the time till we neared
the New Zealand coast, and he was not quite
so uncivil. And he kept quiet with the dona
from Sydney. Yet all the time I couldn't

121

THE RED BURGEE

help having a notion that he suspected it
was I downed him that night. For he took
more notice of me than I liked.

" And then, of course, just as we were in
soundings and he wanted all his calf's brains
he tanked up again and out it all came.

'* The second mate's watch that night was
the middle watch too, and lucky for me I
was a bit behind at muster. For just as Mr.
Graham was singing out our names the
skipper rushed on deck, and they all knew he
was mad drunk. I was just coming along,
shoving my arms into my monkey jacket,
when I heard his voice.

" * Where's the swine that knocked me off
the poop ? ' he roared.

** * He s got a pistol, sir,' said one of the
crowd to the second mate on the quarter-
deck.

"And sure enough he had.

" * What's his name, Graham ? ' he yelled.
* I'll kill him as tried to kill me.'

" * Nobody touched you, sir, it was an
accident,' said the second mate, trying to
soothe him.

122

ON A TAUT BOWLINE

" • To blazes with your accident/ said the
skipper, and then he remembered me.

" ' Where's that swine Gray ? '

'* And he peered over the rail, trying to
make me out in the dark. But I was well
behind the mainmast just in case he did clap
eyes on me and loose off his gun.

" * Tell Gray to come here,* said Graham,
but I knew what he meant by the tone of his
voice. He didn't want any murder done.
Now the silly goat of a Schmidt would have
made mischief easy by really trying to get me
to show up. He was dancing behind the
roaring skipper like a poor devil of a dancing
bear on a hot plate with a ring in the gristle
of his nose. But when I heard Graham's
voice I slipped out and went forward and got
my own six-shooter and shoved it in my
pocket just in case.

"And no more than in time, for Three-
fingered Jack came down on the quarter-deck
and began to look for me in the crowd.
Then he came for'ard, grinding his teeth
and opening out with oaths that equalled
anything 1 ever heard. For he was one of
123

THE RED BURGEE

those men who invent new curses as they go
on, and most ingenious he was. And I
skinned up the fore rigging and lay low in
the top till he got tired of looking for me
and went back to soaking again. And there
wasn't any killing after all, not a darned kill
so to speak. Only I kept quiet and never
showed up till we were in Lyttleton, when
I skipped over the side and went ashore.
Glad I was to slide out of the leaky, bug-
haunted old hooker with a whole skin. I
didn't much mind leaving my pay-day be-
hind me, for I landed a job right off in a
grocery store.

** Graham saw me in the street one day.

" * Did you really knock the old man out ? '
he asked.

'* ' What do you think ? ' said I.

" ' Well,' said he slowly, and as if he was
considering it, *in my opinion you chose
the wrong rail to dump such trash over.'

" As he meant it, I told him the truth, and
then he saw how it was I let her come up in
the wind.

" * But as it stood,' said he, ' you should
124

ON A TAUT BOWLINE

have taken it even if he'd kicked you. Men's
lives depended on it.'

" And I guess he was right. What do you
say, chaps ? "

But the whole foc'sle divided and argued it
out for hours, getting quite heated on ethics.
They left the main point, however, to thrash
out a well known and highly improper
question of casuistry, very popular among
seamen, which introduces a soldier, always
an object of contempt in the foc'sle. And
that was not settled even at eight bells.

125

WASH-TUB DAVIS

They called him " English Jim the Sailor'
up at Afognak, in Alaska, when they were
pleased, and that "derned mad Britisher"
when they were angry. For he was the sort
of man who makes an enemy of a friend and
a friend of an enemy in the twinkling of an
eye. He had the humour of a Celt, the
devilry of a bad Indian, and the solidity of a
true Saxon, yet no one knew who was his
dearest friend; for if a man went out of
Afognak for a week he would find J im camp-
ing in the shack of his last great enemy, while
his former partner eyed him sulkily from the
other side of the bit of mud they called a
street.

" Can I get a job here? " he asked when

he came ashore from the Mary Stubbs, a

wretched little trading schooner belonging to

Seattle. He spoke to the first man he saw

126

WASH-TUB DAVIS

sitting on a pile of sawn boards on the
wharf.

*' Mebbe and mebbe not/' replied the man,
who was rather a sulky sort of hog, and as
silent as they make them.

"Where.?"

" At the stickmula, likely."

He used the Chinook word for sawmill.
But Jim had been knocking about the coast
for a good time, and understood him.

" Or the cannery," added the man. ""Can't
you smell it ? "

*' You bet ! " said Jim. For a salmon can-
nery has a very distinct odour down wind-—*
so distinct, indeed, that foreign consumers
would hardly like to eat the stuff if they smelt
it, even without seeing Chinamen walking
in it before it gets concealed in a can.

So Jim got a job at the mill. He worked
first with the shingle sawyer, and then at the
lath-mill, where he undertook to make laths
himself. In the process he lost his temper,
and very nearly lost his thumb. He had to lie
by for a few days, and then went wedging-off.

" Great Scott ! " said he, " but this kind of
127

THE RED BURGEE

work is work." But he did not like getting
up early, and he made himself popular with
the men and unpopular with the boss by
trying to disarrange the whistle which blew
at five o'clock in the morning to rouse the
men out. He borrowed a Winchester rifle
and bought some ammunition, and, getting
up at four, he tried to shoot away the
whistle from the top of the mill.

'* What's that shooting going on so early ? *
asked the interested town. But, of course,
no one knew until one morning the whistle
wouldn't blow. In fact, they found it lying
on the roof. For Jim managed to hit it at the
end of a week. It was quite characteristic of
him that he didn't mind getting up early to do
mischief. But he was given away by the boss
seeing him with the rifle. He called to Jim.

*' Say, young fellow, what are you doing
with that Winchester ? " he asked.

'* Oh, nothing," said Jim. *' I'm just taking
it back to the man that lent it me."

" Um," said the boss, and Jim turned away.
But Mr. Reed stopped him.

*' Are you a good shot, Atkins ? "

128

WASH-TUB DAVIS

*' Pretty fair, Mr. Reed," replied Jim with
a grin.

" Could you hit a whistle on a saw-mill at
a hundred yards, for instance ? " asked Reed.

" If I tried I might, sir."

" Come up to the office and you shall get
your money," said the boss.

And when he paid him off, minus the cost
of the whistle-repairing, he suggested that
Jim might try the military life. But Jim
didn't tell him that he had tried it, with no
more success than managing to desert with-
out being nailed.

He went in as partner with a Sitcum
Siwash, or half-bred Indian, named Tom,
who did no work and only kept himself in
exercise by thumping an Indian woman who
lived with him.

This displeased Jim until he found that
the Klootchman really didn't mind it But
one night Pete managed to get a bottle of
whisky, which was strictly against the law.
Then he tried to thrash Jim and got very
badly broken up, although the squaw did
hang on to Jim s neck while he was pounding
129 I

THE RED BURGEE

thunder out of her prostrate man. It
sickened Jim, and having no money he made
up to the night-watchman at the mill, and
slept in the sawdust by the fires which were
kept banked up all night.

Then he went to work at the cannery, but
the Chinamen didn't like him, for no Orientals
have any sympathy with a practical joker.
He thrashed one of them very badly, and
got the bounce at once. He determined to
return to San Francisco ; but when he tried
it he learnt that his unpopularity with the big
mills meant trouble for him, for they con-
trolled all but one or two of the schooners
that came into Afognak. He showed his
discharges to one fishy skipper after another,
and they shook their heads.

"Well, then, let me work my passage
down," he urged. ** I'm dog-tired of this
hole.'*

** You've made it too hot and not hot
enough," said Wash-tub Davis, a regular old
whaler with a beard down to the pit of his
stomach.

** What do you mean ? " asked Jim.
130

WASH-TUB DAVIS

*' You ask Mr. Reed/* replied Davis, and
then Jim tumbled to what was up.

"I think it pretty low down to try and
keep me here, Mr. Reed," he said, "when
you won't give me any work."

*• You should have thought of that before
you shot away my whistle," said Reed, who
had a long memory and no particular love of
a joke.

" Never mind," said Jim, " you can't keep
me here." And he went down to the wharf
again and palled in with the same loafer who
had told him about work at the mill.

"What do they call the skipper of this
thundering old schooner ' Wash-tub ' for ? "

" One of his men made a wash-tub, and
Davis sold it to a Siwash for a dollar,"
said the man. " He's meaner than a yaller
dog."

" I'll beat him, you bet," cried Jim. " I'm
damned if I don't go down in his schooner
and in no other ! "

And that night he met some of the men
of the schooner who were drinking. Jim
borrowed a dollar or two on his bowie-knife,
131

THE RED BURGEE

and set up the drinks for the crowd, the
mate among them,

"That skipper of yours is a daisy, ain't
he ? " said Jim. " He won't give me a show
to work my passage with you."

" Did you try him ? " asked the mate, who
was the only one in the lot who had been a
deep. water sailor.

Jim nodded.

" ril speak to him for you," said Richards.

" I wouldn't if I were you," Jim answered.
And he told the man the reason. The mate,
who was now very reasonably drunk, retailed
it to the men, and they ** allowed " it was a
thundering shame.

** See here, tilicum,'* said Richards, hic-
cupping, " you can come. We'll stow you
away."

But Jim cunningly made many objections.

•* You'll get fired yourself," he urged.

" What ! " roared the mate ; " me get
fired? Not much, man ; I'm solid with the
owners, real solid. And what I say goes. You
bet it goes. And what's more, Wash-tub will
go, and rU have the schooner myself."

132

WASH-TUB DAVIS

He drank again and almost wept. For,
indeed, the liquor sold up in Alaska might
make a brass monkey weep.

" And you shall be mate," he sobbed. " I
like you, that's what I do."

So they carried him on board and laid him
in his bunk and covered him up with fishy
blankets. He extricated his head, and, with
tears running down his cheeks, asked for
Jim.

" Here I am, old man," said Jim, who was
sober and shaking with laughter. Richards
grasped his hand affectionately.

"You reckon Tm full, but I ain't," he
murmured. "I'll remember."

Next morning Jim was on the wharf again,
and was leaning against the schooner's rail
when old Wash-tub tumbled on deck.

" Now, then, what are you doing here ? "
he grumbled. "You get off. Sling your
hook now."

" All right, Davis," said Jim coolly.

" Captain Davis, you tramp ! " roared
Davis. "I'll have you know that I've a
handle to my name ! "
133

THE RED BURGEE

" That's good," said Jim insolently. " It's
a dirty name and a dirty skipper to touch
without a handle."

And, stepping back, he looked out for a
flying belaying-pin if one was lying handy.
But Wash-tub only gasped at the atrocious
insult, and, before he caught his breath, Jim
was fifty yards away. He heard a gale oi
blasphemy behind him which would have
sunk a floating bethel or a missionary boat
at its moorings, but he just sauntered off
without even turning round. For he had
taken in his man and knew what would rile
him most

He saw Richards again late that night,
and, true enough, he remembered what he
had said. But Jim looked melancholy.

** I suppose you'll cry off," he murmured
disconsolately. " I can see Wash-tub is a
holy terror. I wonder that you chaps dare
stay with him."

" Dare ! " said Richards, *' you bet he don't
tire me. For, if he won't take taffy, I just
get mad too. I'll stow you away. But I
didn't think you was the sort to be scared."
134

WASH-TUB DAVIS

Jim laughed

** I meant that Td have to fill him up with
lead," he remarked.

And, as the devil was that moment upper-
most, he looked as if he did mean it, which
pleased Richards vastly.

" You're all there, tilicum," he said ; " now
you come down on board to-night about
eleven and we'll stow you away. But you'll
have to keep dark, for if you show up Wash-
tub will haze you and haze me and make it
as hot as hell/'

" Right you are," said Jim ; "but I won't
give you away, and if he bowls me out I'll
stand the racket myself."

The schooner cleared out next morning at
dawn, and all the time the rest were working
her out of the harbour Jim lay up in the
darkest berth in the forecastle, and sniggered
to himself to think that he was loafing.

•* By gosh I I'm Wash-tub's only pas-
senger," he said ; " but when I get down to
San Francisco I'll have a joke with him."

He lighted his pipe at the swinging lamp,
and went back to his blankets just as the
135

THE RED BURGEE

men came in. There were only two to each
watch, and 6( these two were little good-
tempered Finns with backs as broad as a
boat. They came in laughing.

" What's up ? " asked Jim of one of the
Americans.

"Why, there's Wash-tub gassing about
how he's done you,*' said the man. " You
riled him, you jest did: he's been tellin'
Richards about your saying as he wanted a
handle to his name. Those chaps up at
Afognak had got it fixed up to make you run
a sawdust-barrer afore they let you out."

" They had, had they ? " said Jim ; " well,
I've done them this time. Reed will feel
sick. I'd like to fire his old mill for him ;
he's a nigger-driver, not a man for white
men at all. He loves a Chinaman better
than a white man any time."

And they discussed Chinese cheap labour
for half the day. When the weather was
fine there was little to do to the schooner, or
rather there was so much to do that nothing
was ever done.

"A spot of white paint would ruin her for
136

WASH-TUB DAVIS

ever," said Richards. ** We*d all get kind of
dissatisfied, and so long as she holds to-
gether, why, she holds. And I guess she*s
insured."

Jim found his life as a passenger not with-
out its drawbacks. For one thing he was a
very active young fellow, and staying in the
forecastle was, as he put it, " nigh on to as
bad as being in the penitentiary.*' Doing
nothing and grubbing made him full of him-
self, and he was horribly keen on getting to
work. He almost begged Richards to let
him come up and show himself.

"He can't do anything but set me to
work,** urged Jim.

But when the mate was at sea and well
away from Bourbon whisky, he hadn't such
a great idea of the solidarity existing between
himself and the owners. And though Jim
was savage when he was sober, it was the
other way about with Richards.

** No," he said, "not by a jugful. What

more do you want ? You're doing nothing

and you're grubbing good, and lying on the

broad of your back. And if you show up

137

THE RED BURGEE

he'll know we're in it, and hell work blazes
out of us all. I know him. And besides, I
don't want to quit her for the rest of the
summer. Then Vm going east."

" You are, are you ?'* said Jim to himself.
For he knew all about going east. The
desire lasts till a man gets his money, and a
few drinks, and then it's the money goes
east, and not the man.

But he prayed for a good gale of wind, in
order for another hand to be needed. If
every one was in trouble, and extra help
needed, old Wash-tub wouldn't so much mind
learning that he had another good man on
board. Yet all the trip the weather was
sickening good ; it didn't blow hard enough
to blow the ancient stink of fish out of her,
though now she was choked with canned
goods. And the heat was great, and the
insect life on board rampant Jim had all
he could do to save his toes and his nose
from the cockroaches, and certain other
demons played havoc with his skin.

One night when they were off the coast of
California, running down before a light
138

WASH-TUB DAVIS

northerly wind which hardly stirred a heavy
fog hiding the land, Jim could bear it no
longer. Though he often loafed about
for'ard when it was dark, he never ventured
aft For Wash-tub was a light sleeper in
good weather. Indeed, as he was half asleep
all day on a rug spread by the wheel, he
hardly needed rest at night. Yet now Jim
went right aft in the beginning of the middle
watch, and insisted on relieving the Finn
who was at the wheel. Richards remon-
strated.

'•Oh, go to thunder!" said Jim. "The
old man is asleep, isn't he ? Then what's the
trouble ? I must do something.**

And, sooner than raise an argument,
Richards let him have his way. But he kept
the Finn handy in case the skipper did rouse
out But the Finn lay down and went to
sleep, and before Richards heard him old
Davis was on deck in his stockinged feet
Jim slouched his hat over his eyes, and Davis
came and looked at the binnacle. Richards
came up at that moment

" It's a steady breeze," he said stupidly.
139

THE RED BURGEE

** Well, and who said it wasn't?" was the
skipper's polite reply. And turning round,
he went below. Richards jumped to the
Finn and roused him.

" Go to the wheel," he whispered, and
catching hold of Jim he ran him for'ard.

" You're a pretty sort ! " he said, when
they were for'ard of the mainmast.

'* Let|^o ! " said Jim ; " he never tumbled.
What's wrong with you ? "

"What's wrong .?" asked the mate. '*If
he'd seen you, he'd have disgruntled you!
Go and turn in."

And grumbling, Jim retired to the stinking
forecastle.

Two days later they were alongside the
wharf, and Jim skipped ashore without being
seen. At Shanghai Brown's he met an
old mate of his and borrowed a couple of
dollars to treat Richards and the others
with. He met them that night on Battery
Street, and Richards looked particularly
angry.

*' What's wrong, mate ? " asked Jim.

** He give us all the bounce," said Richards.
140

WASH-TUB DAVIS

" I dunno what made him. He's a swine— a
holy swine."

But Jim made no suggestion of an appeal
to the owners. He offered to stand drinks at
the bar of the American House. He spent
his two dollars before he left.

Next morning he went down the water-
front to try and ship in the Monowaz, which
he had sailed in before ; and, as luck would
have it, the mate told him to bring his bag
on board at once. He went off to raise
the stuff to get an outfit, and as he came
away from the Oceanic Steamship Wharf,
he met a gang of out-of-works whom he
knew. He stayed talking with them, and,
as he turned away, he saw old Wash-
tub Davis come booming along like a
rolling barrel. He caught sight of Jim,
stopped, stared, walked on again, and, turn-
ing round, came back. Jim looked at him
unintelligently.

" How did you get down ? " he asked,
open-mouthed.

'* Down where ?" said Jim.

" Down here ! "

141

THE RED BURGEE

" What d'ye mean ? " asked Jim, staring
him blankly in the face.

'* I mean from Afognak," said Wash-tub.

••Afognak," mused Jim. "And where's
Afognak?"

"Do you mean to say you don't know
where Afognak is?" roared the old man
angrily.

"Why the devil should I know?" said
Jim, pretending to be angry in his turn.

" You'll be saying you don't know Kodiak
next," said Davis.

"What's Kodiak?"

And Davis rubbed his eyes.

"Ain't your name Jim, and weren't you
at Afognak three weeks ago ? " insisted the
skipper.

Jim shrugged his shoulders.

"You haven't told me where Afognak is
yet," he remarked gently.

" Well, this beats hell ! " murmured the
skipper ; " if I hadn't known it wasn't possible
I would have sworn you were the man."

He walked on. But when he got about
thirty yards off Jim hailed him.
142

WASH-TUB DAVIS

*' What cheer, Wash-tub ! "

Davis stopped.

" You wouldn't let me work my passage,"
said Jim, ''so I came down in your old
hooker as a passenger. What's the price of
tubs to-day ? "

And jumping in a horse-car which was
coming by, he left the skipper speechless.

WIDE BAY BAR

In the course of my travels and knocking
about this world, I once found myself in
Maryborough, on the Mary River, in
Queensland, and being tired of the bush and
station life, at least for the time, I shipped as
able seaman in a small schooner of about
forty tons, called the Polly. She was com-
manded by an old stick of a fellow, com-
monly known as " Soap-spar Jack *' — for he
had once made a pile of money out of a
claim so entitled — who was not averse to
laying his soul in soak when he got a chance.
In other words, he drank, and at times
drank hard.

When I took my traps aboard the Polly,
she was engaged in carrying coal from Mary-
borough to a place a few miles up the coast
called Bundaberg, where there was a large
sugar refinery, at which we discharged our
144

WIDE BAY BAR

cargo. After taking in sand ballast, we pro-
ceeded to the Kolan River, there loading
timber for Brisbane, at which we arrived
safely. In fact, during my first trip in the
little hooker nothing out of the way happened,
for the skipper's getting drunk led to no par-
ticular mischief that time, though it did after-
wards, and we made fast again alongside the
coaling- wharf at Maryborough after a pros-
perous voyage of about three weeks. And I
must say, to a deep-water sailor, who at that
time had not done much coastwise work, a
round trip in three weeks seemed very short,
and getting among my few chums at Mary-
borough made me think I had hardly been
away at all. Of these chums, however, the
only one I cared for greatly was a man
named Sumner, who had worked with me
on a station in the East Moreton district, and
for whose sake I once got fined five pounds ;
for I found a Chinaman, who hated him,
kicking him when he was drunk, and there
was trouble about it. But the only thing it
is material for me to put down here is that
we were very firm friends, and that he knew
145 K

THE RED BURGEE

the Queensland coast well, having a coasting-
master s certificate.

During our second trip in the Polly we
had to lie for four or five days in the Kolan
River, being bar-bound on account of a
heavy south-easterly swell which had knocked
up such a tumble on the bar that it was quite
impossible to put to sea ; and when once the
sea gets well up there, it takes some time to
smoothe down again. So during the time we
were idle the captain went up in the country
to see some people with whom he was
acquainted, and when he came back he
brought with him some bottles of Queens-
land rum. I must say that he was not
exactly a solitary drinker, and was not
greedy about the liquor, being quite ready
to share it with his crew, which consisted of
a boy, another able seaman, named Jack
Finn, and myself.

When the weather at last moderated we
got out across the bar, and were soon bowling
away south before a fine, strong northerly
breeze, with our two fore-and-aft sails
** winged out," or with the two sails one on
146

WIDE BAY BAR

each side. Now, in a schooner, this is the
ticklish point of sailing, for one can be
caught by the lee on either side with bad
steering, and then over the boom goes.
Especially when the wind is not very light,"
and it was not light in our case because,
though the south-easter had blown itself out,
the norther freshened all the time, as though it
meant business. So the boy was not allowed
at the tiller, and Finn and I steered in tricks
of four hours each, except when old Soap-
spar gave either of us a spell himself, and
this was not very often.

On the way from Kolan to Brisbane most
coasting craft take what is called the inside
passage through the *' Great Sandy Strait,"
which is a broad sound formed by Great
Sandy Island and the mainland, for it is a
shorter distance. Now the way out at the
farther extremity of this sound is over Wide
Bay Bar, or the Inskip Bar, as it is often
called from the Inskip Light, which marks
the entrance to Wide Bay on the mainland,
and over the Bar is the only way out

At eight o'clock on the evening of the day
147

THE RED BURGEE

we left the Kolan River, I relieved Finn at
the tiller. My trick would last to midnight.
I looked at the northern sky as I stepped up
alongside him, and I could see it was full of
wind.

*' The best thing we could do. Jack," said
I, ** would be to shorten sail now. There's
no hurry to get to the Bar. The devil him-
self couldn't cross to-night."

Old Soap-spar overheard me, and spoke
his word at once.

**You mind your own business. I'm
sailing this schooner, and I'll shorten sail
when I've a mind to shorten, not before.
You give me a call down the scuttle when
you raise the Inskip Light. That's all
you've to do."

He added that we could not say what the
Bar would be like until we saw it, and if it
was breaking heavily we could bring up
under Hook Point. For with the wind
north there was no shelter in Tin Can Bay,
the usual anchorage when bar bound. And
with that the old man dropped below, to
bring up, as I knew, in ** Red Eye Bay,"
148

WIDE BAY BAR

anchored to his rum bottle, and Finn went
with him readily enough.

When the skipper tells a man to dry up,
he has usually got to do it, unless he wants
trouble, and I knew the old man couldn't
stand contradiction ; though, of course, in a
vessel like the Polly, and with so few hands,
one is more familiar than on board a vessel
with twenty men and brass-bound officers.
So I shut up, and reckoned it wasn't my
business.

Yet I owned to be uneasy. There was
too much liquor down below, and they would
pay it a good deal more attention than was
the right thing, unless we were brought up
in safety. And the wind, which was steadily
backing to the westward, kept on freshening
and freshening, until the schooner began to
dive and fetch the water in over the bows.
It was hard enough work steering her. For
now she began to get as wild as a hawk, and
it was hard up and hard down all the time,
until I was almost ready to sing out to them
to relieve me while I got my coat off. And
very soon I saw that if the Polly didn't get
149

THE RED BURGEE

some of hers off, we might get in a devil of a
mess ; so pushing back the sliding scuttle
just at nine o'clock, I shouted to the skipper.
There was no answer.

This put me in a stew, I own ; and like a
flash there came across my mind all that
would happen if, as I feared, they were in
such a drunken sleep that I couldn't wake
them, I yelled at the top of my voice : but
it was no good, and I cursed them for two
beasts. The boy was asleep forrard, I knew,
and I hadn't any hope of his waking, for it
took a good shake to get him and his bunk
to part company. OT course it was impossible
for me to leave the tiller. After a few minutes
I began shouting again, and then I stamped
on the deck, and, reaching out, banged on
the scuttle. It was all to no purpose, and I
began to see that if anything was to be done,
I had to do it myself. And just then we
scooted past Elbow Point, and the Inskip
Light blinked up, a little on the starboard
bow, to tell me that I was only a few miles
from the Bar ; and the way it grew and shone
and shone brighter showed how fast we were
ISO

WIDE BAY BAR

running, even if I hadn't known the way the
old schooner walked through it with a freshen-
ing gale astern of hen The Bar, I knew,
must be little else than a raging hell of waters,
that I should never care to face with all hands
on deck, even if I could have run for it with
the wind in the quarter it was ; and now I
began to laugh a little wildly to myself, for
I meant to run into Tin Can Bay, and try to
shove her into the creek there. The old man
would wake to find himself and the Polly
piled up high and dry, so that nothing would
ever get her off. But just as I shifted the
helm, so as to bring the Inskip on the port
bow, the wind westered so fast that I nearly
gibed the mainboom, and I had to bring the
light wide on the starboard bow again. And
now I knew what there was before me.
Neither Hook Point nor Tin Can Bay would
shelter us that night. I had to cross the Bar ;
and if we crossed in safety, it would be a
miracle. And a miracle it was, or so it seems
to me when I look4)ack on that night's work,
and remember what occurred.

Now, as it stood, there was but one thing
151

THE RED BURGEE

for me to do. I had to cross that Bar and
chance everything. On any other point of
sailing, I might have thrown her up into the
wind and jumped down below. In almost any
other craft but a schooner I could have left
her helm for an instant ; but in a schooner
running "wing and wing" it could not be
done. Though she had twice as much
canvas on her as she should have had,
that wasn't my trouble ; it was the fear of
her jibing. If her main boom had come
round and taken charge in such a wind and
such a sea, something would certainly have
carried away and rendered her unmanage-
able, even if the sticks hadn't been taken
clean out of her, which was by far the most
likely thing to happen. Then she would
drift with the wind and tide right up to the
Bar, which I could now see was all white
water ahead of me without one break. And
as fast as the Polly could go she was running
for it.

It was a curious thing to have to face, and
somehow I thought a good deal about
the scene of it. For the sky was only over-
152

WIDE BAY BAR

cast in places, and the moon was shining
brightly on the dark, thickly wooded main-
' land, and the hills at the south of the island
on my port hand. The sea itself was dark,
only a glint of moonlight touched it here and
there ; but the land in the distance was
quite distinct I could even discern the low
hills away back from the coast over and
beyond Tin Can Bay, where we could now
have brought up with the wind in the west.
And just then I shouted and yelled again as
hard as I could. But they were fast asleep.
It seemed to me that we should be all very
hard to wake in less than half an hour. If it
hadn't been for Sumner, my old chum, I
should have been as silent as they.

As we ran on and on, faster and faster yet,
— for the tide was under her, stronger and
stronger, every minute — I began to feel my
courage come back to me. For a moment
or two it had almost gone, but now I began
to liven up and get on a strain, very keen
and very alive, till my nerves seemed to sing
clear like the tautened backstays. Every-
thing to be thought of came into my brain.
153

THE RED BURGEE

I longed for that beach of Tin Can Bay, and
it fairly enraged me to think that I couldn't
rouse old Soap-spar to find his Polly piled
up on the main-land. But in spite of all I
tried to think of, I knew there was nothing
but the Bar for it, and a Bar I didn't know.
Yet so long as the muslin held and the sticks
stood, there was a chance of shooting her
across without any material damage, pro-
vided I put her at a place where she wouldn't
strike and get her bottom knocked clean out
of her. But it was a forlorn hope, and I
own I looked to having the Polly in good
shape for toothpicks or matchwood, with a
crew that wouldn't want either grub or light
again. And now I began to hear the song
of the Bar, the roar of the white water,
coming up against the wind that drove us
down on it

As I knew that when she got into the
heavy roll of it and the whiteness of froth,
and the sand churned up from the Bar, she
would take seas in on all sides, I snatched
up the end of the mainsheet, and managed,
with great difficulty and danger of jibing

154

WIDE BAY BAR

her, to lash myself to the head of the rudder,
giving myself sufficient play to steer her.
For I had no fancy for going overboard
while there was a chance of life, though it
was only as faint as starlight in fog.

And now I must say, though perhaps no
one will quite believe it, that I almost began
to enjoy the danger and the terror of it, for
I felt strung and greatly excited, and as
quick in my brain as a spring trap, and the
feel of the vessel under me as she scudded
was just grand. The wind, too, now sang
and howled, but it was warm and dry, though
it whipped off the heads of the waves and
wetted my back with the spray. The boom
and masts bent like thin pines or whipsticks ;
the rigging was as taut as harp^trings, and
each backstay sang, like a harpstring, a note
according to its length. For this one
can sometimes hear at sea ; and sometimes
they slackened for a moment when she took
a scend forward, and then took the strain
once more with a twang that made me
tremble for the safety of the sticks and for
our only chance.

155

THE RED BURGEE

In such a time, when every nerve and
every muscle were strained to the uttermost
in keeping the craft, which grew wilder and
wilder every moment, before the wind, it
was not likely that 1 should think of anything
but the task before me, and the chances and
the death that seemed imminent And I
don't think my mind wandered away from
the white stretch of the Bar and the Inskip
Light. There wasn't any time ; there was
no place in my brain to think of any I knew,
for now the roar of the breakers and the
wind grew deafening. Yet just as I raised
one last tremendous shout to try and rouse
up the drunken fools down below, I somehow
began to feel as if some one was on deck
with me, although I knew it couldn't be.
And as my last call had no effect, and the
Bar roared even louder, I drew the scuttle
over, and put in the pin to keep it closed
against the water that would otherwise get
down below and perhaps drown them, even
if I got the vessel through. As I did this
and drew back quickly to the tiller, I felt
certain there was some one almost behind
IS6

WIDE BAY BAR

me ; and though I dared not turn away my
head for an instant lest I should jibe her,
I saw out of the corner of my eyes some-
thing like the figure of a man sitting on the
starboard side of the transom. And then I
knew it was Sumner !

For one moment I felt cold, and the terror
of this being a warning came over me ; for
though I was not superstitious, and am not,
I saw him plainly. But as it seemed to me
that he was calm, the fear left me as the
time came for me to choose a place in the
Bar at which to drive the schooner. And
we were only half a mile away, or even less,
when I suddenly felt assured that if there
were any way through it at all, it lay a little
more to the starboard hand, and I instantly
altered my course as much as I could with-
out danger. And I looked again and saw
Sumner still sitting there, and he seemed so
calm and content that I felt I had done
right.

I had done right. For just ahead of me I
saw a little break in the wild water where it
was not all white, and with a plunge the

is;

THE RED BURGEE

schooner was on the Bar, and buried fore
and aft in foam that tumbled in over her
bows and her bulwarks and the ' taflfrail
behind me. I could feel that she hadn't
touched. She was still afloat, and rising
from her first big dive, she was struck full
on the nose by one of the big south-easterly
rollers on the other side. The shock made
her tremble and shiver, till I thought she
was split open fore and aft. But in that
boiling pot, where the seas rose up and sank
and rose again half the height of the masts,
and in the blinding spray and the uproar and
din of it, I had no time to think, as I clung
desperately to the tiller, and tried to keep
her end on to the seas and with the wind
nearly aft. The strains on the rudder were
such that I was thrown from side to side,
and jolted and jarred till my muscles nearly
gave out, and I could scarcely hold on.
For I was blind with the thick dash of
spray and choked with salt water as the seas
boiled in on us and nearly tore me from the
tiller.

For one moment she stopped again, and
IS8

WIDE BAY BAR

then the heaviest sea of all came on board
and washed me away the full length of the
rope with which I was lashed. There were
bruises round my body, deep and black,
when I looked to find them. I struggled to
my feet and dashed the water from my eyes
just in time to see her broach to, sending the
main-boom over with a crash that carried
away the jaws at the heel of the boom.
The mainsail split with a report like a
cannon, and the heel of the boom shot
forward of the mainmast, and going through
the galley as if it were paper, knocked the
stove out the other side, smashing it in frag-
ments like a glass. I regained the tiller,
and was able to put her before the wind
under the foresail, which had stood all
right ; and we were over the Bar. The
rollers there, though heavy, were compara-
tively regular. We were in safety ; and
when I looked round for Sumner, wondering
if I were not in a dream after all, I saw
nothing. But I heard something. Soap-
spar Jack and Finn were hammering desper-
ately at the shut scuttle. Crossing the Bar
159

THE RED BURGEE

had wakened even them. When I drew the
pin, Soap-spar came out with a rush —

** Why, there's Double Island Light!" he
roared. ** You've crossed the Bar ! " and
cursing most awfully, he asked me why I
hadn't called him.

" Why ! " said I, and I fairly laughed.
And then I told him why. But my respect
for his authority didn't seem so great as it
had been when I suggested shortening sail.
I spoke to him straight, but I never said
anything to him or the others about Sumner,
for fear they should think that I kept a private
stock of ** red-eye " for my own consumption.
But three months afterwards I met Sumner
himself, and he remembered dreaming one
night that I was drowned. That is all he
knew. I suppose the figure I saw is what
they call a phantasm of the living.

1 60

THE MEASURING OF THE
DHOW

Some years ago now three men were sitting
in a big room at the Admiralty in Whitehall.
They were hard at work, for one was read-
ing Mademoiselle Maupin in the original ;
the second was trimming his nails with
elaborate and affectionate care ; while the
third was at his desk, staring at an official
paper.

'' What I should like to know," said the last
suddenly, " is how large a dhow can be ? "

The reader of Gautier looked up. " And
what the deuce is a dhow ? " said he.

Being from another department, which
dealt chiefly with troopships, he knew
nothing of any other craft ; at any rate, he
appeared to know nothing. But the man
whose nails were nearly finished smiled a
little sarcastically.

i6i L

THE RED BURGEE

" I haven't the remotest notion of their
size, but as the tendency of all the powers
that be is to build vessels bigger and bigger,
it is possible that the Arabs are of their age
and keep pace with us."

"You've hit it, I think," said the man
with the paper, " for they get bigger every
month, and then prize money gets more
accordingly. Here's the Scorpion chap send-
ing in a claim for one of 300 tons. It's about
time we had a prize court on the coast there."

" It ought to be inquired into," said the
reader of the Golden Book.

** It must be inquired into," said the nail-
parer, planting his penknife deep in the
table.

" It shall be inquired into," said the man
with the paper. " I am going to Alexandria
next month. I will take care to get sent on
to Zanzibar. There will be allowances and
subsistence money, and I will inquire into
this tale of the Scorpion^

**Get up mensuration and tonnage and
measurements and all that rot before you
go!" said the disciple of Gautier, with a
162

THE MEASURING OF THE DHOW

wink, and then and there he sat down and
wrote a letter to a friend of his. Part of it
ran thus : — " I think you know Bright, of the
Scorpion, now hunting slavers, etc., on the
east coast of Africa. Jefferson, of this office,
will take advantage of his having to go to
Alexandria to go farther, perhaps to Zanzibar.
He is interested in dhows ; wants to know
how big they run. Verbum Sap.''
# # # *

Jefferson went to Alexandria, and liked it,
and to Aden, and hated it, and then on to
Zanzibar by a B.I. boat and a Frenchman;
but when he reached the Sultan's Island, he
found the Scorpions commander was laid up
with some kind of fever. He wasn't to be
seen, so Jefferson got put on board the gun-
boat, and interviewed the chief gunner, who
was practically in command.

" So you would like to see a dhow, sir ? "
said the gunner cheerfully. " Will you come
out a cruise with us for us to catch you one ? "

** Haven't you one handy?" asked
Jefferson.

''Well, not exactly," replied the gunner, in
163

THE RED BURGEE

a tone that made his questioner feel meanly
ignorant. ** These big slave-dhows are
getting scared of us now ; but I'll see what
can be done for you if you'll stay with us for
a bit"

" That's what I proposed doing. Lieu-
tenant Bright sent me word that I could have
his cabin. I suppose it's healthier on the
water than ashore ? "

" Healthier ! Lord love you, sir," said the
man, with a grave face. " There's no health
here. I've had the fever seventeen times.
Tve got a touch of it now ! "

** It's not catching, is it ? " asi, ^ Jefferson
nervously.

*' They say not, sir," replied the gunner,
apparently trying to appear cheerful. ** It's
in the air and the water and the grub and the
tobacco and everything ; but I can see you're
not scared about fever."

'* Hum ! " said Jefferson.

" I'll see your traps are sent on board, sir,"

said the gunner, and he departed to interview

the bo'son. His air of cheerfulness was

clouded over when his back w-*-, turned, and

164

THE MEASURING OF THE DHOW

gloom fell on his shipmate when he heard
the news.

'* What's to be done with this office swab ? "
asked the gunner. '* He will blow the whole
gaff if we can't put him off. The lieutenant
would fix him some way or another."

*' Persuade him to-morrow that he's got the
fever already/' said the bo'son, who was a man
of ready wit. ** Get the doctor to give you
something to fix his drink with, and make
him ill."

'* I dursn't ask the doctor any such thing ! "

*' Then get it ashore."

" It's too risky."

*' Then he's got us," said the bo'son.

** I don't know that it's any good yelling
before we're hurt," said the gunner, after a
pause. " I'll find some way to weather on
him, if I have to take him out in the boats
for a week and make him believe we don't
know where we are."

''Take him up nor'ard and stick him in a
swamp on the Kipanga,"said the bo'son.

" If it wouldn't put the whole crew down
too," said the gunner, **it would serve him
165

THE RED BURGEE

right. What does this man mean by coming
here to spoil a good thing. Til make him
sick yet."

So he went off, and sat in his berth plan-
ning and plotting how to do Jefferson.
When he went on deck again, he found his
man under the poop awning, leaning on the
taffrail, and looking at one of the biggest
trading dhows that ran into Zanzibar. She
was a '' bagala/' with a high square stern, a
tall poop, and a curious long, projecting
prow. She was using her sweeps just then,
for it was a dead calm.

" What's that, Mr. Smith ? " said the man
from the Admiralty, glad to see any one, for
he was beginning to feel the heat dreadfully,
and to funk the fever.

** That's a dhow, sir."

" A dhow, eh ? " said Jefferson, showing
more interest ; ** and is she 300 tons.^"

" Lord, no, sir ; she's only a cockle-shell
compared with their big boats, such as a
Mtepe or a Jumbo. You wait a piece, and
rU show you a Jumbo."

'* Is this one a slaver ? "
166

THE MEASURING OF THE DHOW

** They're all slavers when they can be;
but now she's an honest, honourable trader,
with orchilla weed, or some such trash, in
her ; but to-morrow I think I can show you
a real dhow, sir, if you have a mind to come
in the boats round yonder point"

He pointed away to the north, towards Bet
el Ras, along the oily sea, which shimmered
with heat and shone like brass in the wake
of the sun.

** Can't we go in the Scorpion}'' asked
Jefferson, wiping his forehead.

"Not very well, sir. You see, it's dead
calm, and may be for days, unless there's a
cyclone comes."

*' And supposing one came while we were
in the boats ? " asked Jefferson in alarm.

"We should probably be able to get
ashore," replied the wicked gunner, with an
emphasis on "probably" that made the
enterprising clerk fairly squirm ; but he said
no more.

Next morning, two hours before dawn,
they routed out Jefferson, gave him a cup of
coffee, and put him in one of the boats. The
167

THE RED BURGEE

bo'son stayed on board, but his smile was
cheerful as he saw them depart with one of
the boats much in advance of the other.
Under its stern sheets was a pot of black
paint and some brushes.

"Where's that boat going to?" asked
Jefferson, as he saw it slipping off into the
darkness.

"Just ahead of us, sir," answered Mr.
Smith ; " she's the lightest and fastest boat
we have."

As they went along, the gunner prattled
artlessly about the rains and fevers, and
niggers and Arabs and their bloodthirsty,
treacherous ways; and he mixed Jefferson
up with native and nautical terms, until the
poor fellow was ready to swear that mastka
meant a very big dhow and bedeni was
applied to the heavy rains. For Mr. Smith
used all the words he knew and some he
didn't, and he span yarns about khors and
mtos, and about Tumbutu and Pemba, with
a fine geographical inaccuracy not wholly
confined to sailors. But just at dawn, when
the sun and day come together across the
i68

THE MEASURING OF THE DHOW

island that we call Zanzibar and the natives
Unguja, they rounded a point, and Jefferson
saw a vessel hard ashore in the bight of a
small bay.

*' Why, she's on the shore ! " he exclaimed.

" She went ashore a month ago."

" And is that a dhow ? " he asked.

All the men in the boat looked at him with
an odd expression in their eyes. One of
them gurgled strangely ; but the gunner was
very solemn.

**Yes, sir, that's one of the biggest — ^the
very biggest — dhows we catch. I doubt if
we ever caught quite such a big one. In
fact, they do say she was too big for them
Arabs to manage, and that's why she's got
on the ground."

The men dropped their eyes and pulled
hard.

•'There's a boat by her," said Jefferson
presently.

** Yes, our boat, sir." He coughed a little
himself, and, taking his glass, looked through
it. As he shut it up again, he nodded con-
tentedly.

169

THE RED BURGEE

In less than a quarter of an hour they
were alongside a two-masted vessel, which
any sailor would have recognised as a Swedish
or Norwegian brigantine by her paint and
curved martingale, in spite of her being a
good deal bashed about and almost dis-
mantled ; but to Jefferson she was a dhow,
a big slave-dhow, such as he had come so
far to see, and as he clambered up her side
he had a sense of romantic adventure come
over him to which he was a stranger.

''So this is a dhow," said he simply.
"Well, I must say I never had any notion
they were so big or so well fitted. But, Mr.
Smith, I don't remember ever seeing any
picture of such vessels as dhows. She's very
like one's own kind of ship."

" Picture, sir ! " said the gunner contemp-
tuously ; " who draws 'em ? Do they come
out here and do it, or stay at home and think
about it? Besides, they fellows want the
pretty little bagalas such as I showed you
yesterday. They don't think it good enough
to draw Arab craft like our own. But the
Arabs, sir — the Arabs, they know. And
170

THE MEASURING OF THE DHOW

now, sir, perhaps, as you are in the dhow,
you'd like to measure her up and satisfy
yourself about the size."

" That," said Jefferson cheerfully, ** is just
what I was thinking of."

"Then we'll take her length and depth
and beam, and any other measurements you
like, and both reckon it up."

So they took those three dimensions, and
several others which Jefferson, enamoured of
his new study of naval measurements, in-
sisted on.

** We are not so particular, sir," said the
gunner loftily.

'* No," said Jefferson ; "at the Admiralty
we think you are sometimes a little inaccu-
rate ! " And he thought he had made a point.

** What figures have you got.^ " he asked,
after a quarter of an hour's hard work.

"Four hundred tons!" said the gunner,
who had made a rough calculation with a bit
of carpenter's pencil on the rail. It only
took him a minute. Jefferson stared.

*' Why, I make it 445 tons and two-thirds
of a ton," he exclaimed.
171

THE RED BURGEE

" I daresay you are right, sir," said the
gunner, with an air of superior virtue ; ** but
Lieutenant Bright thinks it is better to err
on the side of giving a leetle under than
over, even if we lose a trifle of money on the
iob."

•*How do you calculate it, then?*' asked
Jefferson.

" Multiply the length (minus three-fifths of
the beam) by the beam, and that again by
half the beam, and divide by ninety-four,"
said the gunner. ** That's good enough for
us ; but of course, sir, you are more likely to
be right than I."

And then, though he had forgotten more
about practical mathematics than the Admi-
ralty man ever knew, he suggested to him
that he should like to know the true official
method. He made so many mistakes in
learning it that Jefferson came to the conclu-
sion that he had to deal with a fool ; and as
a teacher he resumed some of the natural
superiority which he had lost in the unnatural
circumstances of dhow-hunting north of
Zanzibar. He made a long technical report
172

THE MEASURING OF THE DHOW

when he got on board the Scorpion, fhe
gunner made his friendly report to the
bo'son.

** But what about the name on her stern ? "
asked that worthy suddenly.

" Didn't I get some black paint from you
this morning, you thick-headed duffer, and
didn't it go on ahead in the gig ? Of course
it was painted out when we got there ! "

But, nevertheless, Jefferson remained an
undisputed authority on the larger kinds of
dhow so long as he adorned his golden
branch of the Admiralty.

173

A SEA COMEDY

I HAD come home from Australia in Money
Wigram's Essex, with a bought discharge,
that I had brought no discredit on, and
being again dead-broke in London, I went
up to Hull, to look for a job in a steamer.

I was full up to the back teeth with wind-
jammers, and going aloft on a dirty night in
a ship "with sails.'* For I preferred ** a sail-
ing ship with two masts and a big chimbley,"
as the Irish emigrant called the White Star
liner in which he crossed the Western Ocean.
Being a heavy man, if active, I hated stow-
ing the foreroyal, when there were half a
dozen lazy young devils aft and for'ard that the
skipper feared to risk above the mainyard.
For that was what happened when Lake
commanded the old Essex.

I knew one of her quartermasters who
hung out in Hull. He had held a master s
174

A SEA COMEDY

certificate but he drank, and one night, when
he was very full, he didn't leave things to
his mate like a sensible chap, but bossed
the job of putting his vessel ashore, and got
his ticket cancelled, being eased off with a
mate's. But he couldn't catch hold again,
and so went before the mast, as he had done
thirty years before. And he and I were
thick coming home. So 1 thought I'd try
Hull.

I put up in the ** Sailors' Home," in Salt-
house Lane, quite in the backquarters of the
town, and being used to rough tucker and
tough sleeping in spite of a soft spell at
home in London, I didn't mind the hash or
the accommodation that they gave us.

There were not many of us in the Home
— only myself and a ginger-headed English-
man, and a Herring- back, and a Blue-nose,
and a very old Yorkshireman, or one who
had been Yorkshire till he'd been pickled in
all the seas betwixt the Horn and the North
Cape. And perhaps it's as well to say that
a herring-back is a New Brunswicker, and a
blue-nose a Nova Scotia man. For the

175

THE RED BURGEE

New Brunswickers are supposed to eat
herrings till the bones stick out of their
backs; and what with strong liquor and
strong weather, the men from Nova Scotia
are often blue about the beak, though not
more so, I daresay, than any common
Englishman when he goes down channel
with a stocking round his neck, feeling blue
all over with the last big debauch and the
cold of a bleak north-easter.

We didn't have such a bad time at the
Home, and though I was soon stony-broke,
without the price of a screw of tobacco or a
pint of beer, I wasn't unhappy. We used to
prowl about in couples round the docks
during the day^ and walk the streets at night
till we were tired. Then we went back to
the smoking-room, to see if any of the chaps
had raised a smoke and a little to spare, and
if no one had, we sent a deputation to the
boss of the Home to try and wheedle him into
an advance of sixpence. But, though he was
a very easy man, he used to come in and
look stern enough.

" I shall be singing * John, get up, and
176

A SEA COMEDY

let Jack sit down/ mighty soon to some of
you," said he. " For you are flat-broke, now,
aren't you ? "

"We are, sir," we answered.

" Well, then, go and look for a ship.
Then you'll have tobacco," and he mooched
off.

" Tough old nut he is," said Ginger. And
then we told each other yarns about ancient
battles in which he had been engaged. For
he had once been a prize-fighten And we
discussed a knotty point: Could he, even
now, being a bit old, lick the runner of the
Home, who weighed eighteen stone, and was
as strong as a hippopotamus ?

We varied that discussion one evening by
getting up a fight among ourselves.

For the blue-nose, whose name was John-
son, managed to get drunk by palling in with a
chap just come ashore. Then he took it into
his thick head that I'd done or said, or meant
to do or say, something to him, and he sat
on the table, and made insulting remarks, till
I got up and landed him in the face and cut
his eye. His chum, the old Yorkshire chap,
177 M

THE RED BURGEE

chipped in then, and caught hold of me, and,
between the two of them, I was a bit mauled,
and, between the three of us, what furniture
there was got upset.

The boss was out, but his wife and the
servant-girl heard the uproar and the crashing
of benches, and they came in time to see us
in a pile on the floor. They flew at my
assailants, who were on top, and pulled them
off" by the hair, and lugged me out And
the old woman, who had taken a fancy to
me, as I wasn't so rough to look at as the
most of them, gave me half a crown, which I
was to pay back out of my advance when I
got it.

I bought tobacco, and, going back into the
smoking-room, sat and puffed it in solitary
dignity, till the others were so sick of having
none that they fairly crawled, and came over
and tried to make friends. And I, being
a young fool, not yet twenty-two, gave
them half an ounce and stood them some
beer. Then old Yorkshire, who really
wasn't a bad sort, and didn t owe me any
grudge for the black eye Td given him in
i;8

A SEA COMEDY

the scrapping match, told us a yarn which
I've always remembered, and have often told
in the fo'c's'le since, as having happened to
my uncle or my elder brother. And here it
is, for what it's worth. Put your price on it,
and we'll talk of another.

'* Them as talks of the diggings 'as mostly
never 'andled a pan, and as for a pick, the
only pick they ever see was mostly a tooth-
pick. I've read books on it and yarns about
it that made me sick. For it's one lucky, and
ninety-nine with the typhoid, or the 'orrors,
or starving, or workin' for another bloke.
And I was one of the unlucky sort Ballarat
I'd tried, and Bendigo,and, my word, I never
got a real show anywhere. I fever I see any
gold it was in another claim, and at last I
sells out, and clears.

** ' I'm off to Melbourne, mates,' says I.

'* ' Right you are,' says they. * For there
is some lucky and some out of it, and. Bill,'
says they, ' you 'ave 'ad uncommon bad
luck.'

** Which was true, as I was telling you.
179

THE RED BURGEE

•• * For any man nowadays, let alone a
sailorman, can ship in Melbourne for a cool
'undred for the run *ome/ says I, 'and 'ome
rU go, and see if my luck turns, and in another
eight months, mebbe. Til be up 'ere again/

"And we all shakes 'ands, and I 'umps my
swag, and 'oofs it into town. It took me just
three days, for Ballarat's a good 'undred miles
up country, and I could walk a good 'un them
days. I met sailormen strung out all along
the road, each man with 'is blooming 'ook-pot
givin *imaway for what 'e was. And though
I was quite the miner, they tumbled to me
when I opened my mouth, and would ask for
me to tell 'em the truth of it, and why was I
leavin'."

" ' 'Ad I made my pile ? ' says they, unani-
mous.

" * No, I 'adn't,' I says spiteful, ' and, what's
more, for one as does, a cool 'undred don't.
And, mates, it's muck and dirt and flies and
open blazes there, and if you'd take my advice,
as you won't, you'd 'bout ship, and come
with me.'

" But, no, they see for theirselves, thinking
1 80

A SEA COMEDY

me a bloomin' disappointed old croaker.
And when I leaves 'em I says —

" ' And drink's a cruel price, and bad at
that. Wuss nor the worst down at Sand-
ridge.'

** And it was the same with 'em all, till I
gets down into Sandridge, and drops my swag
outside Jackson's boardin'-'ouse. I know'd
him for a scoundrel, but that I didn't mind,
for then I didn't drink over-much, and I 'ad
it all cut and dried in my 'ead what I'd do.

" ' I suppose I can get a ship ? ' says I.

" * They wants men cruel bad,' says he.
* But it won't be so bloomin' easy for you to
get a ship.'

*' • 'Ow's that ? ' says I, starin' at him.

"'Well,' says he, 'can you ship as a
bloomin' crowd? Are you ten A.B.'s and a
couple of ordinaries, and a cook and a boy or
two ? ' says he. ' Why, you know you aren't,'
says he.

" And I gives a whistle. I swears it 'adn't
ever entered my 'ead as that was the way of
things. But I sits down and 'as dinner, and
just no more than 'arf a pint, or maybe more,

i8i

THE RED BURGEE

but not much anyway. And down I goes
afterwards on the pier.

"And, sure enough, the 'ole of the bay
was just like a bloomin* fly-trap or a lobster-
pot. Easy enough they come in, but 'ard it
was to get out ; and 'oo the 'ell was to do it,
for they lay there thick, as thick as Falmouth
with 'omeward bounders after a month's good
east wind ?

** The place was full of melancholy captains,
sittin' along on dumped stuff on the pier, and
they was in rows, like hinvalids sunnin' their-
selves outside of a 'orspital on a warm day,
very melancholy and sad to be'old. And
though they looked up eager-like at me as I
came along, a manifest sailorman by the walk
of me, they only turned their quids, and spat
quite sad and dejected, when they thought I
was only one, and not a 'ole crowd by any
means, though big an' strong to look at.

" I walks down to the far end of the pier,
and never in the 'ole of my life did I feel so
stuck up. I puts my thumbs in the arm oles
of my weskit, and strolls on casual, knowing
I was wot they calls a unique, meanin*, as I
182

A SEA COMEDY

reckon, the on'y one as was. And when I
gets to the end, I squats on a pile of planks,
and considers as to what was my price, and
'ow I was to get it.

" And my pride goes a slump, sudden, and
the use o' bein' the on'y specimen on sale
or 'ire warn't so clear to me. I might be
proud of bein' the only seafarin' man there,
except skippers and a few odd mates, but 'ow
was I to get *ome, and 'ow raise the rhino by
so doing ? It appeared to me as I wanted a
stack of slates to work it out on.

** So I sits and dangles my legs over the
water : and be'ind me, on one side of the
pier, was cheerful captains and thoughtful
captains, watching the few old cripples they
*ad, and some lumpers paid by the hour in
gold, whippin' out the cargo, and, on the
other side, was the melancholy row of
skippers being added to gradual.

•*And I lay down, and tumbled off to
sleep, what with the sun and the quart or so
of she-oak I swiped at dinner-time, and,
bimeby, I dreamed as the *ole of 'Obson's
Bay was as thick as the South Surrey
183

THE RED BURGEE

Commercial with vessels lying in tiers, and
rammed and jammed and crammed right
away from Sandridge and Williamstown to
Geelong and Queenstown and the 'eads.
And all along of the piers, and on the shore,
sat the weary captains, some with long grey
beards, and some gone mad, and some singin'
soft and low, * We're 'omeward bound,'
with the tears in their eyes. And as the
bloomin' ships sailed in through the 'eads,
they brought up sudden agin' the others, and
the crew comes ashore, miles across the thick
of them. Up country they goes, a stream of
sailormen, with 'ook-pots and a bundle in a
bandanna, with 'ope in their eyes and a chew
in their cheek. For little they know'd of
dust and flies and ants and mosquitoes, and
'ard labour in an 'eart-breakin' 'ole, with not
the sign of gold in a thousand weary panfuls.

*'*And, presently, as I was a-lyin* and
dreamin', I was shook by the shoulder, and I
sits up, and I sees a sad-looking skipper by me.

***You was nigh rollin' overboard,* says
he, 'and I took the liberty of rousin* you,'
says he.

184

A SEA COMEDY

" * Thank you kindly/ says I, though I
felt thick in the mouth and tongue, and none
so pleased.

"And then he squats down alongside.
And I thinks that things is a bit different
from the usual lay, say, in the Port of London.
For there its 'unt and 'unt for a ship, and
' Could you give us a chawnce in this ship,
sir ? ' while *ere they came and sat down
friendly with a man. Presently this 'ere
skipper talks.

'* ' It's a rum start all this.'

"'What's a rum start, sir ?' I arsts 'im.
For, though I was so bloomin' rare and
precious, I couldn't be 'aughty with a skipper
at first, and ' sir ' come out before I thought
of my true persition.

" * Why, not 'aving no 'ands,' he answers.

" * Ah, now you valleys 'em,' says I. * I
guess it's no two-pound-ten a month you offers
the likes of me now ? '

** * No,' he allowed very civil, * we'd give
any thin* in reason for a crew.'

** * And what's reason, my good man ?
said I.

185

THE RED BURGEE

"But, at that, he jumped a bit off his tail,
like a kangaroo, and I could see it was a bitter
pill for 'im to swaller. But 'e saw I 'ad the
upper 'and, and 'e chokes down the words in
'is throat.

** * They talks of ten pounds a month,' said
'e, looking at me out o' the corner of 'is eye.

" * And twenty to that,' I told 'im. And
he knowed it was true. For years after, when
men was nothin so scarce, I 'ad ten out of
Port Pirie.

*• ' Well,' says 'e, * that's so. It's ninety
pounds the run 'ome. And my ship'll do it
easy in ninety days, and, with luck, in seventy-
five.'

** * What's your ship ? ' I arsts.

** * The Great Republic^ says 'e. ' A good
ship, and a comfortable ship, and a flyer.
And, though I says it, I've the name of a good
captain.'

** Now, as it 'appened, I'd 'eard of 'im, and
I knew 'is name, which was Speddick.

** 'I own I never 'eard nothin' much agin*
you, Captain Speddick,' says I, 'but I've my
doubts as to your makin* a passage in seventy-
i86

A SEA COMEDY

five days. And they do say as the grub s none
so good on board of you.'

'* He stands up.

" * Will you ship with me ? ' *e arsts. * You
shan't *ave nothin' to object to.'

'* ' rU think of it,' says I, cautious.

** * I'll give the 'ighest wages going,' says
e, * and if you fetches me some 'ands, you shall
'ave commission on what they gets.'

""Owmuch.>'

** * Five per cent.'

" * It ain't enough.'

" ' Well, then, ten,' says 'e, sighing.

" * I'll think it out, Captain Speddick,' and
I walks off, and 'e follows.

** * Will you give me your word not to
ship with any other man till you comes to
me ? ' he arsts.

*''0h, that rildo,'says I.

" ' Shall we drink on it, my man ? *

" ' My name's Mister Cowen,' said I, and
Tm blowed if he didn't take it and say
Mister.

** And down we goes by the other captains.
Presently I pulled up.

187

THE RED BURGEE

" * Does any of this lot on this pile of
scantlin's know you ? ' I arst of 'im.

*' ' Oh certainly, Mr. Cowen,* said 'e.

'* * Then, maybe, you wouldn't mind if I
was to arst 'em what kind of a skipper you
are,* said I ; * and there's that argument we
'ad as to your doing it in seventy-five.'

**'E stiffened a bit.

** ' I'll show you the logs,' said he. ' But
you can arst 'em.'

"And I did.

" ' Oh yes,' allowed one of them, ' 'e's a
good 'and as capting. I can recommend
'im, sir, as the capting, if you're going to
ship before the mast'

" He meant it satirical. That 1 could see.
But I acted as if I see nothing.

" * And the grub ? '

** ' Good,' they said ; * there's jam and
butter, and duff" every day, and always
pickles.'

** * And the rum's over proof,' said Speddick
'imself.

" ' No allowance ? ' I asked.

' * Oh come ! ' said 'e. And I gives in on
i88

A SEA COMEDY

that, and we goes on. And the captains
all subsides again.

"'How long'U they sit there, Speddick?'
I says.

" He chokes a bit, and don't answer for a
while,

" ' Gawd knows,' he says presently.

" ' Then, why not ship a crowd of skippers?'
says I.

" But 'e thought it wouldn't answer, for, at
any rate, they could be watchmen in their
own ships, and to 'ire a watchman was like
'iring a millionaire.

" And so talkin', me being boss, so to speak,
we comes down to Jackson's, and 'e stands
champagne, and then some rum 'ot For
that 'elped the perspiration.

" And on it we strikes our bargain. I was
to be bo'sun, with a 'undred for the run 'ome,
or thirty pounds a month if she didn't do it
in a 'undred days ; and for every man I
fetched at ninety I was to 'ave ten, and if I
got 'em on board, drunk, Shang'ai-in' 'em, I
was to 'ave thirty. And while I was workin'
it 'e paid my board at Jackson's, aad give
189

THE RED BURGEE

me five pounds a week. And all *e asked
Jackson was whether I was sober. And
then I was, and Jackson could say so with a
clear conscience. Not that lyin* hurt 'im,
anyway, and never did.

'* Well, when Speddick quits, and goes off
to his own shebang, or the ship, or the stack
of dunnage as he was squatted on when I
came by him, Jackson, who'd laid low, came
to me mighty curious.

'* *And what kind of a bloomin' racket ave
you on with Speddick ? ' 'e arst me.

" * Tm the crew,' said I, dry enough. For
I had no cause to be civil to Jackson, for *e
couldn't do nothin' for me, and 'e wasn't to
finger no advance note, I tell you.

'* For, in them days, I 'ad the savvy to spend
my money on myself, not bein' the idjit I've
got in these later times. Then I 'ad notions
of 'avin' a public-'ouse of my own, though I
was before the stick. I was a rare bird
then ; I never seed my like out of a thousand
silly sailormen. Money I stuck to, for I
loved it, until the woman came and made me
like the next man, and shook my cash out of
190

A SEA COMEDY

me, being drtink with love of her, just as
they up-ends sleepers in Sydney, and shakes
the stuff out of o* their pockets, when they're
blind.

" But, as I was saying, I answered Jackson
dry. And 'e didn't like it.

"'Oh, you're the crew, are you? And
where's the rest of you ? ' 'e says. ' Or are
you and Speddick going to sail a full-rigged
ship 'ome round the 'Orn by yourselves ? '

** ' Don't you mind me,' says I. * Did you
ever see anythin' for you to take me for a
green'orn ? '

'* * Why, no,' he answers, bitter enough,
' if all sailormen was the dead spit of you,
boardin'-'ouse masters would 'ave no easy
time of it.'

** ' Why, no, Jackson, they wouldn't,' says
I ; ' they'd be pickin' pockets in the street,
instead of in their own snug, eh ? '

" * I'd like to see the josser as could pick
your pocket,' says 'e.

" * After you've been through it,' says I.
* As you tried, and you know it, you daylight
thief, you.'

191

THE RED BURGEE

" And he lights over the barj quick* For
thief or not, and *e knowed well 'e was one,
'e was good enough at a rough and tumble,
and as 'ard as a keg of nails. And little
good a boardin'-'ouse master would be if 'e
warn't, unless he was like Barley over at
Williamstown, as *ad 'is wife's brother — a
fightin' man — ^as chucker out I knowed
'im, for 'e put me on my crust more'n once.

" But that was what Jackson couldn't
He called me a Jew, and then we was among
the casks standin' on their chimes agin' the
wall. And, afore any of the other blokes
about could 'elp 'im, I landed 'im' on the
boko, and 'e was stretched out neat and tidy,
with the claret goin'.

'* The wife come out then, and 'ove a glass
jug at me that went through the winder.
And, with that, I stands over Jackson, and,
bein' savage, I tells 'er I'll jump on 'im if she
so much as lifts 'er 'and again.

" * Talk as much as you likes,* I says.
And talk she did. For she was a rare she-
devil, and could tongue-bang any trollop in
the town.

192

A SEA COMEDY

" ' 'Ave you 'ad enough ? ' I arsts of
Jackson.

'* And 'e owned to 'avin' 'is fill.

" * But tell that wife of yourn to drop it,'
I says. And 'e did.

'* So then I took my dunnage, and went
over to the rival 'ouse — a den o' thieves, of
course. But when I told the boss I'd give
Jackson the taste of my fist, he stood a
drink and I took just one, and went and
turned in comfortable, to think out the plan
as I'd in my 'ead.

'^But by the 'Oly Frost, if I'd known
what was goin' to 'appen I'd 'ave crawled
back to Jackson, and said, * Kick me, do, and
kick me 'ard, for I'm nothin' but a crazy :^

lunatic'

''But then, no man knows, and if I'd
know'd as a woman was to get the posh I'd
saved, I'd 'ave drunk it freer, and been more
popular. Not that I ever was mean, and no
man as ever sailed with me could say it,
though they 'ove up at me that I always
left 'alf my pay at 'ome, though not married.
That was the only way I ever struck to save
193 N

THE RED BURGEE

a little, and I was mad at bein' called a Jew by
that Jackson, just because I was tryin' not to
get left 'igh and dry, as most sailormen is as
don't ave the luck to be drowned.

" 'Owsomedever, I 'ad my path chalked
out, and, Jew or none, I meant getting some
sugar some'ow, seein' I'd 'ad such luck with
the pick and the pan at Ballarat. And, with
this soft and silly Speddick, and the way times
was, if I could only rake up a scratch crew
out of 'ell and Little Bourke Street, I could
easy make two or even three 'undred out of
the passage, and with that added to the
'undred I ad at *ome, I might manage a little
beer-'ouse, and never see water agin, except
when I shoved it, and a little sugar, into the
beer in the cellar. For my uncle 'e 'ad a
beer-'ouse, and I knowed a bit of the wockin'
of it.

" But it was a good thing for me in this
'unting up a crowd that I warn't easy dis-
couraged, and was full as fond of a joke as I
am now, and more so ; for then, bein' young,
I 'ad more spirits, and was more able. I tell
vou I've often laughed even on a cold look-
194

A SEA COMEDY

out, or, for that matter, at the wheel, to think
of me prospectin' for old Speddick's crew,
when every swine's nose was set north-west
towards Ballarat to grub gold, where many of
'em just dug 'oles and got buried in 'em.

*' Of course, in any time, and in any place,
you can lay 'old of dead-brokes and no-account
chaps, and some of these I just got 'old of
and kept 'em in tow, with a nobbier or two
of poison. But that was on'y in case I
couldn't land some better. You can easy
reckon it warn't no plan of mine to go in a
ship with a real crowd of cripples, for it would
mean too much on me, and might mean more.
And I was lookin' for pay-day, not to be
shark's meat, nor to be crawling 'ome for ever
under jury rig. Though, at thirty quid a
month, that was worth considerin'.

** Well, I gets 'old of another real sailorman
who was silly and sick and footsore, and with
the last remains of the sandy blight makin'
'im blink and 'ate the sun, and look out for a
ship. His name I disremember, but we called
'im Blinkers, for 'e 'ad spectacles. And,
catchin' 'im put me on a dodge. I went up

195

THE RED BURGEE

to the 'orspital, and stood the porter a drink
or two, bein' a towney of 'is, as I said, though
it wasn't so.

" ' ' Ow many sailormen 'as you in the
place ? ' I arst of 'im.

" ' There's six, I think,' says 'e.

" ' What's wrong with 'em ? ' says L

**' There's one with a bad knife cut, and
one with a broke leg, and another with
the jaunders, and two with the 'orrors. And
the other I disremember,' says 'e.

**And I gets 'im to let me know when
they was comin' out, and I meets 'em, and
stands 'em drinks, they bein' discouraged and
weak and 'omeless. And all but one I gets
down to the Great Republic, to see Speddick,
and 'e signs 'em on, though, for the matter
of that, three hadn't much of the seaman
about 'em.

**And, with the first one signed, I made
'im draw me up a contrack, and the boardin'-
'ouse boss takes it to a low lawyer, a shyster
they calls 'em in the States, and 'e sees as
it's all right, and charges me a pound, blast
'im. 'Owsever, it was drawed tight enough.
196

A SEA COMEDY

"And, 'oly Moses, but you would *a
laughed to see *ow the Great Republic got
turned into a floatin' convallysent 'ome !

** ' Speddick,' says I, 'you'll feed 'em
well?'

*• ' I will/ says 'e,

•' * For to keep 'em, you must,' I says, ' and
make it 'omely to 'em with rum 'ot and a
squeedge of lemon. And now, with another
five or so, we could do it'

" * I think we could,' says 'e, eager. For
'e was brightenin' up wonderful, and 'ad got
over its first feelin' about me talkin' to 'im as
if I was the owner. The melancholy was
goin' out of 'im, and 'e would walk the pier,
and chaff the other captains sittin' idle or
cussin'. For they cussed first, and then tried
for 'ands, and then give it up, and either
drank or faded away. They told me at the
'orspital as captains mostly went off in a
decline that year, though most years it was
d.ts., as one would expect, of course, seeing
as captains don't 'ave no need to axe nobody
for a certificate for bein' sober.

** If the Board of Trade know'd its business,
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THE RED BURGEE

they'd make it a reg'lation to axe the crowdy
when they paid off, what the skipper s 'abits
was. And then the land wouldn't jump up
sudden where it wasn't looked for so often,
and they wouldn't just make their landfall by
'ittin' of it unexpected,

"By now I reckoned as we 'ad enough
sailormen to salt the crowd with, and I
thought the time was come to make an 'aul
of the men as I was to get most out of
accordin' to the drawed-out contrack. And
Blinkers and me (for I kept 'im ashore) went
off about it. Just about then I tumbled
across a real towney of mine, a 'tec, come
from Whitby, where I was born, though
mostly sailin' out of London, and 'im and
me agreed well, and I told 'im the lay I
was on.

** * Look here,* says 'e, ' for a fiver a-piece
ril get you three men, not too old, and fairly
spry on their feet, though not sailors.'

" * I don't want sailormen,' says I, laughin'.
' We're startin' a trainin' ship, me and
Speddick. Where are they, and will they
come?

198

A SEA COMEDY

*' ' ril see they come,' says 'e ; ' but is the
fiver a-piece good ? *

" * I don't think as Speddick '11 stand so
much, Bob/ says I, 'but Til pass my word
for three, or, say, ten quid for the lot'

"And, after a little 'agglin', he agreed.
Leavin' Blinkers moored fore and aft to a
donah and a pot of beer, we went in a side
parlour, and wrote out a contrack . for
ourselves.

" * And who's these men, Bob ? ' I arst 'im,

** * You won't give me away, Bill, will
you ? ' said 'e.

*' And I swore blind I wouldn't.

"*Then they're wanted,' said 'e, 'and I
can nab 'em. On'y it'll be more worth my
while to let you 'ave 'em than to jug 'em.
One's a bloomin' auctioneer, as 'e calls 'imself,
though we calls 'im a fence, and the other's a
bettin' man as was, that's now a bully, and
the other's quite respectable — a doctor.'

'*' And what's 'e done?'

" ' I don't believe 'e done nothin'. Bill, but
there's a lot of evidence as 'e killed a man.
And 'e s 'iding, and I gets two quid a week
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THE RED BURGEE

not to take 'im. But Til have to directly,,
for there's another of us, as don't like me,
nosin' round/

" ' And they'll all come wilHn' ? ' says I.

'"Two of 'em glad, the fence and the
doctor. The other I'll bring you, willin" or
not, if I 'ave to 'ocus 'im,' says 'e.

"And we fixes the day, or rather the
night, of their bein' brought. And then I
'ad eight, without me and Blinkers. And I
looked for old Speddick to get 'is mate or
'ave none.

"All I wanted now was someone as I
know'd could cook decent, and make bread,
soft tack. For Speddick would 'ave to give
us that I meant goin* 'ome fat.

" And, by gosh, as I was goin' down to
Sandridge, I 'ad the finest idea as ever
struck me. I lay down in the road and fair
roared, and Blinkers, who was a bloomin'
solemn bird, and fair ridiklus with blue
spectacles, very foolish-lookin' on a sailor,
was 'alf frightened at me.

" ' What's the matter ? ' says 'e.

" ' Oh, matter,' says I, * there's a joke in
200

A SEA COMEDY

my mind, and nobody Vl\ tell till it comes off.
OLord! OLord!'

"And I yelled again, and rolled in the
dust.

'' ' 'Elp me up, Blinkers,' I says at last.
And in we goes to Sandridge, chucklin' all
the way. And, passin' Jackson's, I see 'im
at the door, and gives 'im the time of the
day.

** ' Go to 'ell,* says 'e.

'"After you.' says I, perlite enough; 'im
grinnin' as if 'e'd like to punch my 'ead, on'y
not darin', not being able. 'Is eyes was
still in moumin' for the time 'e thought 'e
could, and there was a scar on the bashed
bridge of 'is ugly nose, as I'd run my fist
agin'. If 'e tried it on then, 'e'd 'ave 'ad
ginger, for I 'ad a big stay-sail 'ank in my
right-'and pocket for a knuckle-duster.

'' And the best of knuckle-dusters a 'ank
makes, with the double edge of it. I
downed four Dutchmen and a Greek with it
one time, and they all 'ad to go to
'orspital, and I was on'y saved doing time
by their catchin' a chap as they thought 'ad

201

THE RED BURGEE

done it, and, though he 'adn't, he deserved
what he got, for that same man once cut me
about somethin' cruel, and me quite civil to
'im always, for he was a notorious 'ard nut,
and laid for 'omeward-bounders for a livin*.

'* I goes off to the Great Republic, and
finds my bloomin' convallysents playin'
euchre, two at single-'anded, and the other
three at cut-throat. I tells Speddick about
the other three comin' and 'e was a bit
scared.

** * If youVe white-livered about it,' says I,
*why, you'll stay and rot 'ere. You can't
pick your crowd. We're all toughs, ain't we,
but you want your ship 'ome, don't you, and
you ain't goin' to 'ave no soft-spoken Young
Men's Chrishun Association to do it for
you? Did you expect me to get you a
singin' crowd from the Bethel ? '

**So 'e caves.

'' * Will that be enough ? ' I arst 'im.

** * There should be more,' says 'e, * but
we'll make out on it.'

** ' I'll do my best for more, Speddick,' says
I, and ashore I goes.

202

A SEA COMEDY

**That night I tumbled on two fair
scorchers, dead-broke and bust, and ready
for anythin', and I persuades them to sign.
For they 'ad a down on Australia like me.
And, goin' through the town with 'em, we
sees Jackson again, and one of 'em goes up
to *im without a word and plugs 'im. But
Jackson ended by downin' 'im. And, it not
bein' my intention to spoil Jackson alto-
gether, I lets *em 'ave it out, and takes my
man away, bashed and bleedin' and swearin'.
And then these two was in for what I
wanted on the next night, when Bob, the
detective, brought 'is men aboard, and got
'is ten quid from Speddick.

" That was at ten o'clock, and Bob brought
'em in a boat, two sober and glad to ship,
and the betting josser dosed and limp, with
some laudanum the doctor *ad fixed up for
Bob to give 'im. 'E was good for a twelve
hours' snooze, and, by the time 'e woke, we
would be out of the 'eads with any luck.
For me and the skipper 'ad fixed it up to
sail at four in the morn in'.

**When we 'ad the bettin' bloke lyin'
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THE RED BURGEE

comfortable, and the doc lookin' after 'im, I
goes aft to the skipper.

'* * There's on'y one more man we must
ave, cap.,' says L

•'* Who's that?' says 'e.

" * Why, the cook, man alive I ' says I.

" * Oh, any one of 'em can be that," says 'e.

" But I shook my head.

"' I've promised 'em all the best of grub
and good cookin', and now I'm ashore to get
one,' says I. * I knows of one as '11 ship with
a little persuasion,' says I.

'* So, calHn* to the two as was with me in
the scrap with Jackson the day before, ashore
we went.

** ' Jackson robbed you both, did 'e ? ' I
arst of 'em.

** * 'E did so,' they said, cussin'.

** ' Would you like to be upsides with
'im.>'

" You bet they said they would, and I
unfolded my little plan as I'd laughed at when
Blinkers wondered why I yelled so.

'* And when I say as Jackson 'ad bin a
cook afore 'e took to skinnin' sailors, it's easy
204

A SEA COMEDY

guessin* why I laughed. Why, they fair
screamed, these two did, Smith and Gavel
was their names. Gavel bein' the one that
Jackson whipped, me lookin' on.

" * But 'ow'U you get 'im ? ' says they.

** * Oh, that's easy, mates,' says I. ' We'll
be under 'is winders at two o'clock, and
nothin' bein' doin' in Sandridge, itll be pretty
quiet, and 'e'U be turned in. We'll ave the
boat on the beach, and you. Gavel, can throw
a stone through 'is winder, and play bein'
drunk and wantin' to fight 'im again, though
not makin' too much noise. And, then, out
'e comes, and we comes from be'ind the 'ouse,
and just downs 'im, and carries 'im to the
boat It's as easy as say it'

" And so we fixed it

"At 'arf-past one we sneaked up quiet,
and saw 'ow the land lay, and no bobby
about I 'eard Jackson lock the door, and
then the light come in 'is window. And,
presently, Gavel done as I told 'im, and crash
went the winder, and Jackson runs down mad
and boilin', and goes straight for Gavel, me
'ot-foot be'ind 'im. Before 'e reaches Gavd,
205

THE RED BURGEE

I 'it 'im on the back of the 'ead with a teak
belayin*-pin Td picked out special. And
before you could say * knife ' we 'ad 'im in the
boat, while 'is wife 'ollered from the winder,
but, as I guess, never seein' what came of 'im,
and no one minded 'er.

" And when we come alongside, I took Mm
up on my back, and dumped 'im by the dosed
chap, and told the doa to feel *is *ead. For
I 'oped it wasn't fractured. But not a bit of
it. The doc. said it was on'y a contusion,
which, I reckon, is medical for a thunderin*
big lump, and that 'e'd be right as a trivet in
an hour or so.

** And, about then, or a bit later, it showed
signs of dawn, and, rousin* the crowd out, we
'ove the anchor up very sulky, and stood for
the 'Eads.

** So, there we was, fifteen 'ands or there-
abouts, all told, to a fifteen 'undred-ton ship,
by good luck an easy worker, not one of them
'eart-breaking 'ookers as always works sulky,
like a tired crowd.

"There was me, as was bo'sun, and
Blinkers for two, and we palled in a bit.
206

A SEA COMEDY

The 'orspital chaps was Prosser and Bates
and Casey, an Irishman, and Mullen and
Shaw. Prosser was the jaundered bloke, and
still yellow as a rotten lemon, and no sailor ;
Shaw was 'im as ad 'is leg-bone busted ; and
Casey and Bates was no more than just out
of the orrors and no sailors neither. Mullen
*ad bin knifed down out of Flinders Street
one night, but not bad. 'E reely was a
Dutchman, with an English purser's name.
As for Gavel and Smith, they was fair devils.
'Im that Bob 'ad called the auctioneer was
not such a bad sort, and could yarn a good
un. But Pawson, the bully, was a thick-
headed evil beggar, as 'ated work. The best
o' them three was the doc, and *is name was
Sarle, a gent to look at, and strong, and first-
rate fun, and, as we soon found out, as good
a seaman as most of us, through 'is 'avin' bin
Shang*ai-ed unexpected out of New York.

"And, besides Speddick, quite the softy
for a skipper, there was Bean, the first mate,
and 'im no choice of mine if I'd been the old
man. But, mates or crowd, it was take what
you could, and make the best of it ; so, may
207

THE RED BURGEE

be, Speddick was in luck to get one as knew
'is duty, if not 'ow to 'andle the lot Td fixed
him up with, poor beggar. Oh ! many's the
time 'e wished 'imself on Sandridge pier, Til
back, did Speddick, for 'e was one of them
men with a soft, full beard 1din' a little chin.
And IVe noticed as men with silky 'air, and
lots of it, is fitter to 'andle lapdogs than boss
a crowd, unless, as sometimes 'appens, they've
obvious got the devil in 'em.

** 'Owsever, there we was, and soon outside
of Port Phillip's 'Eads, and going for the
Straits under plain sail, and no sign of
crackin* on yet. Says I to myself, ' We'll 'ave
to alter that as soon as we get fixed up.*
But I said nothin' then.

** About four bells in the morning watch,
though no watches was set yet, Pawson
wakes up in the fo'c's'le, 'alf a dozen of us
watchin* 'im for the joke of it.

** * Poll,' says 'e ; first. And I shakes my
fist at the rest to keep 'em quiet. Then 'e
opens 'is eyes, and looks about, and closes
'em agin. Then 'e sits up sudden.

** * Where am I .^ ' says 'e.
208

A SEA COMEDY

" ' Where do you reckon, mate ? ' I says
to 'im.

"'B'gosh, I'm aboard a ship,* says 'e and
er givin* a good heave then, I could see 'im
turn green. It saved a lot of argyment, for
we just dragged 'im out into the lee scuppers.
And, as I passed by 'im, I told 'im, in bits,
'ow Bob 'ad sold *im for three pound six and
eightpence, 'im not even 'avin' the 'eart to
swear.

'* And then it was Jackson. Me and Gavel
and Smith kep' watch and watch over 'im, till
'e come to with a groan.

** ' What's wrong ? ' he arsts, and Gavel
chips in —

"'Nothin's wrong cook,* 'e sang out.
And Jackson rolls over, and sits up. And,
ard 'it or not, 'e tumbles at once.

" * You swine,' says 'e.

** * Easy, Jackson, easy,' says I ; * go easy
it you want a 'ole skin, which you 'aven't got
to the back of your 'ead, for it*s your wife's
a twelve months' widow, at the least, and
you're cook, where I'm bo'sun.'

" You never see a man look worse. I
209 o

THE RED BURGEE

never did. *E was fair ragin', and yet darsen't
for 'is life.

" ' ril cook nothin',' says 'e.

"'You'll cook everythin*; and, what's
more, you'll cook well/ says I, quite quiet-
like. But I looked at 'im very stem, and, if
there was any sort of a laugh on me, I reckon
it didn't amuse 'im none.

" ' There's fourteen 'ungry men on board/
says I ; * if you're off your feed, and if we
leave out the chap in the scuppers' it s only
thirteen : but them's got to be cooked for,
and cooked for quick, and cooked for decent,
and cooked for three times a day. Do you
savvy ? '

** And 'e savvied. You bet 'e savvied.

"I took 'im to the galley myself, and,
while 'e was lightin' the fire with 'ot curses
and some kerosine, I fetched stuff from aft,
tins and tins of it For most of the stuff was
still lyin' in the cabin, not yet in the lazarette.
And, by the look of it, and by what we
sampled, there warn't much to complain of
yet, and Speddick 'ad kept 'is word, even to
the pickles and the butter.

210

A SEA COMEDY

" After breakfast, which was none so bad,
and with no poison in it, for all Jackson's ill-
looks might 'ave sunk the ship, Speddick calls
us aft, and sets the watches.

" I could see 'e was nervous, and I know'd
the mate was too ; and the tone o' their voices
made the 'ole crowd as contempshus as I was
myself, and I could see mischief or fun stickin'
out a foot, so to speak, all accordin' as to 'ow
they took us, and accordin' to the temper of
the crowd when it shook down and felt
itself. And, there bein' no second mate,
the skipper 'ad to take one watch 'imself.
And little 'e liked it, Tm judgin*; for, as
soon as we was clear of Bass's Straits,
and 'eaded for the *Orn, I 'ad charge of
the deck often enough at night-time, with
'im snoozin' below.

" And, just about then, there was the first
signs of trouble, and, of course, I stood in with
the crowd.

"'What for should we keep watch and
watch ? ' arst Gavel one day at dinner-time.
* We're by the run 'ere, and ain't goin' to
do no work, eh, just more'n is wanted ? '
aix

THE RED BURGEE

" ' Why,' said the others, ' it ain't to be
expected.'

'* For it 'ad rained nigh on to every day
since we left Melbourne, being late in the
southern winter ; and, so far, Speddick nor
Bean 'adn't plucked up the spirit as 'ave us
do more'n just trim sail, and stow and set the
fore and mizen t'gall'n's'ls once or twice.

" ' Then I votes we keeps Calashee Watch,'
says Gavel ; * sleepin' in all night suits me well.'

*'*Andme.'

'* * And me,* says they all.

" * And does workin' all day suit you,
Gavel ? ' I arst of *im.

** * Not much,' says 'e.

" ' Then it ain't Calashee Watch you wants,'
says I.

** * Calashee by night, and play in' cards by
days,' says 'e, winkin*. * And the doc. 'ere
plays the concertina.'

** So 'e did— well.

" ' You're leavin' out the skipper,' says I.

" ' Skipper be damned ! ' says Gavel. * 'E's
no account, and chance it. I sized 'im up the
moment I claps eyes on 'im. And the mate's

212

A SEA COMEDY

only 'is dog, and won't bark till 'e's told. And
Speddick won't dare tell 'im.'

** And the doctor chips in. A rare devil
'e was, with a blue eye laughin' all the time.
But 'e know'd 'is business^ too, and never
killed no man in Australia.

" * Three cheers for this Republic,' says 'e.
' This ain't no bloomin' ancient monarchy.
It's goin' to be run on democratic principles,
with equal privileges to all.'

"And, by this time, bein' full of good
tucker, and got over the first of the passage,
and cleared out of rotten whiskey, they was all
feelin' good, and they riz three cheers, all being
there but Blinkers^ who was at the wheel.

** I couldn't 'elp but laugh myself, for then
I was no more'n thirty, and took things pretty
easy, and was reckless enough at times, and
refusin' duty, and goin' a nigh shave of mutiny,
didn't scare me over-much.

** But I was feared of losin' my money as
Speddick 'ad signed to give me, and was
bound to go easy, and keep in some with
Speddick. So I frowns a little bit to the
doctor, and ups and speaks.
213

THE RED BURGEE

'' ' Go easy, boys, and I guess thisll be .
a comfortable ship. But it ain't no good
'urryinV says I. ' I'll 'ave a bit of a guff with
the old man to-night I think it can be
fixed easy, and no need for unpleasantness,
if so be you're all of one mind'

" As to that, I know'd they was. Sailor-
isin' ain't none so pleasant as they should be
eager to slave at it And, provided a man
ain't drunk, 'e's mostly ready to do 'is fair
whack, which is what no owner is ready to
take for 'is measly two pound ten a month,
which works out at little more than three
Vpence an hour, rotten tucker given in, and
saying nothin' of all 'ands bein' called. And
yet men shies at joinin' a union.

" Well, and it was fixed so. And, in the
first watch, which was the old man's, I goes
on the poop, kinder confidential, and touches
my cap, kinder casual, as if I didn't mean it
But then I didn't want the others to be
familiar with 'im, if I was, and I know'd they
was watchin' of me.

" * May I speak to you, captain ? ' I arst of
'im.

214

A SEA COMEDY

" * What is it, Cowen ? ' said 'e.

" * Well it's this way/ said I ; " this 'ere
crowd is rather a rough lot, and, times bein'
what they are, they knows their value, and,
though not presoomin*, they 'ave kind of
told me, knowin' as I know'd you first, to
speak to you about the watches.'

** ' Well, what of 'em ? ' says 'e.

"'They wants Calashee Watch,* says I,
'and a good sleep in, if they can get it
And, what's more,' says I, lookin' at 'im, Mf
you don't mind my sayin' it, Td give it
'em, sir.'

'' And 'e plucks up some spirit and refuses,
quite angry.

*"0h, very well, sir,' says !, *beggin'
your pardon for mentionin' it'

*' And I tells 'em, and but for Gavel, I think
they'd 'ave took it And what d'ye think
'e done ? Bein' Sunday, 'e got the 'ole crowd
on the fo'c's'le 'ead, and 'e slings a bottle
right out at the end of the starboard whisker,
and, most of 'em 'avin' revolvers, 'e gets 'em
target - shootin'. And poor practice they
made, but good enough for Speddick, for
215

THE RED BURGEE

presently 'e sends for me. And I warn't in
no 'urry.

"'Owsever, when I does go aft, 'e was
standin' first on one leg, and then on another,
like an 'orse lame in both fore-feet, and Bean
with 'im. I could see they was agreein' to
make the best of it.

** vOh, Cowen,' says 'e, * Mr. Bean and me
'as bin talkin' it over, and, seein' as we are a
bit short-'anded for such a ship, and some of
them bein* no more than just out of an
'orspital, I thinks it's no more than right for
'em to 'ave the watches as you suggested.
So you can tell 'em so.'

** * Thank you, sir,' says I. And I turns
to go.

" * What's the shootin' ? * says 'e.

"'Oh, nothin', sir,' says I. 'But bein'
mostly from the mines, and a rare rough lot,
they 'ave their revolvers with 'em, and
thought they'd try 'em, it bein' Sunday.'

" * 'Ave they all got 'em ? '

** I shook my 'ead.

*' * Not all, sir, but most.'

" And, with that, I goes for'ard agin. I
216

A SEA COMEDY

told the crowd as 'e'd give in. And they
shuts up shootin', and goes below, and plays
cards, euchre and poker and seven-up till
dark. They calls the Joker in the pack
Speddick, for Gavel says —

'' ' Old Speddick's a blank card, 'e is, and
on'y just wot you calls 'im. Likely 'ell end
in bein' cook, in place of Jackson.'

" 'E might 'ave gone farther from the mark
than that, as it turned out But Gavel, for
all Jackson pasted 'im once, was a clever
swine, and know'd B from a bull's foot any
hour of the day.

'' And speakin' of him and Jackson reminds
me wot I'd 'arf forgot, for it 'appened, me
bein' asleep, that Gavel and 'im 'ad a turn-up
about the duff, and, though Jackson fought
'ard, Gavel downed 'im twice, and at last
outed 'im with a dislocated jaw, that Sarle
put in beautiful.

** When Gavel says that, I knowed 'ow it
would be, them bein' most what they was,
rough and tough, and the rakin's and scrapin's
of 'ell. For, though I says it, I was a'most
the quietest on board until roused. And,
217

THE RED BURGEE

bein' bo'sun» I kept myself a bit to myself,
though not too much. But, talkin' with Sped-
dick, I told 'im 'e 'adn't no soft thing a'ead

" * And it'll not pay you, Speddick, to try
any *andspike racket with this lot They'll
dump you over the rail as soon as think it,
and swear it was the act o' Gawd'

'* That was wot 1 slung 'im, and it was
true enough, as you'll see. They was men as
wanted the fear o' Gawd put into 'em right
off. But who was Speddick but a chafer on
a pin ? And didn't I swing 'im round alone ?
So what the crowd could do with their guns is
easy to guess. An American skipper, with an
'ickory face and murder in 'is 'eart, and an iron
belayin'-pin in 'is 'and, might 'ave wrought
wonders at the send-off, but nowitwas too late.

'' And lucky Speddick and Bean was that
they were softies, and lucky for me, and
lucky, too, that the situation took us 'umorous.
For, bein* older now, I sees well as it might
'ave been an 'angin' job for all of us afore we
put the thing through."

" Well, there we was, and goin' boomin',
218

A SEA COMEDY

for the Republic she was a flyer in 'er way,
though not up to Thermopyla or to the
Samuel PlimsoU. And, after a bit, I began
to take things easier in my mind, and didn't
care so much about the bloomin' sugar, for
I fair enjoyed myself. Bo'sun I was, and I
sat on the rail, with my arm round a back-
stay, smokin' 'alf the day. and watching the
old girl shake seizings and shearpoles off 'er,
and nothin' done to stop it Laugh, well,
wouldn't it make a cat laugh? And the
crowd sitting out on deck, when it was
warm, playin' poker.

" ' rU raise you a plug '

** ' I see that plug, and go two plugs
better.'

*' And so on ; and the skipper, lookin' on,
tryin' to seem cheerful.

*' And, then, the servin' out of the rum 'ot
And Jackson bringin' the glasses round like
a waiter. And us calling ' Jackson, the sugar ;
and why ain't we got silver tongs } '

" The skipper presently would look at it
breezing up, and 'e'd call to me.

" * 'Old on, sir,' Fd say ; ' I'll be with you
219

THE RED BURGEE

in two shakes of a lamb's tail. The 'and is
near played out.'

" Then I'd go up, and 'e'd suggest, timid,
as the fore-t'-gall'ns'I should be took off 'er.
And I'd call for volunteers to do it. You
bet it was fun, and I fair screeched sometimes
even in my bunk. But I never was eager to
take sail off 'er. ' Crack on ' was my motto,
for we was paid by the run, and it was
Speddick's tender way with things as led to
the next move.

*'For 'e was that tender with 'is spars as
give me the 'ump, and, from 'is name, me
thinkin' 'e was a Scotchman. And what
Scotchmen is in the way of crackin* on, you
know, a Yankeefied Scotchman bein' the
devil 'imself, and them I've often see'd
swingin' their maintop-gall'nVls close'auled,
and sobersides of English skippers before
the wind, and no more than the topsails set.

" I give old Speddick a delicate 'int, once
or twice, for I says to 'im this

*'*Look 'ere, Speddick, you're far too
bloody tender with 'en With this 'ere wind,
she'll carry all you can give 'er.'

320

A SEA COMEDY

" ' And who's to shorten er up, and you
blokes playin* cards ? ' says 'e, bitter enough.

" I screws my mouth up.

*' * I done my best for you, cap., and the
best ril continue to do, but I can't 'old in
this team,' says I, 'and all I'm doin' is to
give you a delicate 'int,' says I, 'as 'ow best
to drive what you can't 'old. But if you'd
rather I didn't speak, why, you give me the
'int, and I'll dry up. I fetched the crew 'ere,
but it's the officers' business to control 'em.'

" I turns to go, oh, very perlite, for I caps
'im, and scrapes, quite formal.

" * Stay, Co wen,' says 'e, and 'e softsoaps
me, 'e does. For 'e was scared not to 'ave
me partial on 'is side, and 'e was scared to
death of firearms. 'And, look 'ere Cowen,'
'e adds, 'though I think it'll breeze up
'eavier, we'll keep 'er as she goes.'

" And certainly it looked a trifle black in
the weather quarter, and the glass, as Bean
told me, was fallin' a little.

" If I don't disremember, this was in the
first or second dog-watch, when we was
nigher than 'alfway to the *Orn ; so one

221

THE RED BURGEE

might look for it stiff now and then, though
in them latitudes I've noticed it often don't
come to nothin', even when it looks to begin.

** That night Sarle and me was deep in a
game of brag, and me ten pound of tobacco
out, for, till then, we 'adn't begun to play for
money, not 'avin' much. And one thing as was
usual in them days Speddick wouldn't do at
first — I means, dividing a 'undred quid on the
capstan, for the crowd to play with goin' 'ome.

** Well, as I say, me and the doctor was
braggin* agin' each other, and three times I'd
see'd 'im, and lost, when I gets three of a
kind, and, on drawin', fills. And 'e chucked
two 'imself, and bet free. All the others was
playin', or lookin' on, and the rum 'ot, a
fairish whack, was in every man's fist, for
she a jumped a bit on a risin' sea. And, just
then. Gavel gets gravelled at 'is game.

" * Oh, damn,' says 'e, * I wish I was at

'ome, at 'ome I do.' And, being chanty man,

'e starts —

" * And when we get to London Docks,
The pretty girls come down in flocks/

And some of us joins in, laughin'.

222

A SEA COMEDY

"*Go it, old girl,' says I, when she rises,
and pitches, and I steadied myself on the
chest I was sittin' on ; 'go 'ome, my beauty.'

*' And then Sarle sees me, and blowed if 'e
didn't 'old four deuces, and me a full 'and,
kings and tens. It made me that mad I
could 'ave scoffed a ringbolt And then Bean
comes along, and puts 'is 'ead into the fo'c's'le.

" * The three tops'ls is down on the cap,'
said 'e, with a grin from under 'is sou'wester,
for 'e wasn't a bad sort, after all, ' and the
captain would be obliged if you gents would
come out and reef 'em.'

"There you see what comes of a soft
skipper ; even the mate, no very great shakes,
and young, made a joke of 'im.

" Well, the crowd groaned, bein' com-
fortable, for it's wonderful 'ow soon a crowd
learns to run a show to suit itself.

" * Come in, Mr. Bean,' says Gavel, and
the others echoes it. And Bean just stands
inside, shinin' with the rain.

" ' Oh, blimy, it's rainin',' says old Shav,
'im with the game leg — a Shadwell chap 'e
was.

223

THE RED BURGEE

" * D'ye really think as it's necessary to
reef 'er down, Mr. Mate? ' says Gavel, with
a wink.

" ' Yes,' says the others, takin' a lead ; ' for
we wants to go 'ome.'

" ' We ain't on monthly wages,' says
Smith ; ' it's the run 'ome we're paid for.'

" * What do you say, Cowen ? ' says
Gavel.

"Now, if it 'adn't bin that I'd been so
sick with Sarle's four deuces, I might 'ave
got 'em out, and reefed 'er down, but I was
just a leetle cross. Some men's tempers
give sudden, and at times I'm one of 'em, and
this piece of luck in play was all of a piece
with my luck at the mines, and some'ow I
thought I'd never even get my money out
of the ship.

" ' I says nothin', and don't give a damn,'
I answers, shufflin' the cards.

"And, what annoyed me more. Gavel, as
I began to dislike, kind of takes command.

" * I'll just take a look at the weather,'
says 'e, and puts on an oilskin, and out 'e
goes. 'E comes back in a minute or two.
224

A SEA COMEDY

" • There ain't no need to reef 'er,' says 'e ;
' and, what's more, Bean don't think so.'

'* * If Cowen don't think so, we'll go out,
and 'oist em agin,' says Shaw, who 'ad no
'ankerin* for hours aloft

" And then I know'd as I'd 'ave to go with
'em, or lose any kind of influence I 'ad. And,
not carin' what I done, I went out. Gavel
was right enough ; and a good sailor 'e was,
brought up to it from a kid, with a nateral
idea of what was comin', as good as any
barometer, and a man as could smell the
land. And, wishin* to put 'im back in 'is
place, me bein' bosun, I just looked alofti
and then comes back.

•' * This 'ere craft don't require no 'elp to
get through the night comfortable,' says L
* Come, men.'

"And out we goes — me spokesman, my
'and bein' forced. When we come aft, on
the quarter-deck, all of us but Shaw, 'oo was
nursin' 'is game leg, I calls to Speddick

" • Captain Speddick,' says I, * we don't
think as she wants a reef took in. We're of
opinion as she can stand it easy. And we
225 p

THE RED BURGEE

wants it understood as we're 'ere for the run
'ome, and you've got to drive 'er.'

" I could 'ear 'im choke, but, afore 'e got
in a word, I sings out, ' Maintopsail 'alliards,'
and, stretchin' 'em along, we 'oists the yard up
again to Gavel singin', ' 'Aul on the bowlin'.'
There was disrespect and mutiny in the
voice of 'im, and when 'e says,

"'•Aul on the bowlin',
We're bossed by bloomin' Chiaamen,'

you could 'ave 'eard a chuckle go for'ard to
them tailin' on behind me.

" When we 'ad the topsails 'oisted agin, we
goes back into the fo'c's'le, and, after a bit, I
slipped out, and went aft on the poop, findin'
Speddick pretty nigh cryin'. So I was extra
civil, findin' my persition just a wee bit
awkward, 'olding candles to the devil aft and
the devils for'ard,

" * Could I speak to you, captain ? ' says I ;
and, Prosser bein* at the wheel, with Bean
watchin' 'im, for little 'e know'd about it, I gets
Speddick 'alfway betwixt the binnacle and the
break of the poop.

226

A SEA COMEDY

" • What d'ye want ? ' says 'e, angry like,
perkin* up a bit.

'' ' I wants to tell you, captain/ says I, 'as
it wam't my fault as the tops'ls was 'oisted
again. But they're a tough lot for'ard, I own,
and you can see that same with 'alf an eye,
and I 'ad to do it, for Gavel forced my 'and.
And if I broke with 'em, I'd 'ave 'ad no power
over 'em at all'

" * You're the toughest of the lot yourself,
Cowen,' says 'e. And I 'm not sayin' as 'e adn't
the right sow by the ear that time.

" * And lucky for you if I am,' says I, ' for
I'm on your side, as you knows. And it'll
be in your mind to chouse me out of my
money if I gives you 'alf a chance by be'avin'
bad. And that chance I won't give you;
and you ask the mate if it was me started it'

" And Bean allowed it warn't me.

** When I told you as it was best to crack
on all she'd stand, I was givin' you the best
of advice,' says I, '' and your not takin' it 'as
led to this. But you wouldn't take a delicate
'int, and now you 'as to take one as delicate
as a crack with an 'andspike. And if I'd let
227

THE RED BURGEE

'em get their knife into me, I wouldn't 'ave
'ad an 'old on 'em more'n 'oldin' an unbroke
'orse with a rotten pack-thread.'

" And 'e allowed Td acted for the best

" ' And if they carries on furder,' I tells
'im, 'and I'm with 'em, it's just because I
can't 'elp it They're an un'oly lot, on'y fit
for a Western Ocean packet, and mostly no
sailors.'

" I leaves 'im then to chew on it, and goes
back to my bunk ; and she stood the three
topsails right enough. And, though she
wanted the sails trimmin', 'e never called the
crowd to do it till breakfast-time.

" And, till we rounds the 'Orn, we 'as little
more trouble, bar a scrappin' match or two,
for Pawson downed Gavel and Smith when
'e began to feel 'imself, and I 'ad to step in.
And when I did, Pawson lay up for nigh on
to a fortnight, and no man could say 'e was
shammin', for the 'ead I put on 'im was most
obvious.

** But, after roundin' the 'Orn, we got
some foul weather, and the fo'c's'le began to
leak. Though that didn't trouble me, for I
228

A SEA COMEDY

'ad my bunk and locker in one, it sickened
the rest. And that young beggar Sarle
egged 'em on to grumble, bein* as reckless as
could be. And before I know'd it, and quite
surprised at myself for the upside-downness
of everythin', I was 'eadin' of a deputation
aft, to tell the skipper as the fo'c's'le wasn't
fit for human 'abitation, which was the way
Sarle put it.

" ' Why, no, ain't it ? ' said Speddick.

" ' Then we'll shift aft,' says Gavel and
Smith, nothin' be'ind of Sarle's 'int.

" And aft they came, with all their dunnage,
and, seein' no chance of stoppin' 'em, I
collars the second mate's berth myself, it
bein' the best.

" * It ain't the first time I've come aft from
forward,' says Sarle ; and 'e tells 'ow 'e was
first indoosed to ship by a dosed drink, and
'ow he came aft through knowin' 'ow to put
the skipper's 'ip in. And even Speddick
'ad to laugh.

" The on'y two as didn't come aft was
Jackson and Pawson. For Gavel wouldn't
'ave Jackson, and me I stuck out as Pawson
329

THE RED BURGEE

shouldn't come. For 'e was a crimp, and a
pimp, and a bad 'at, and a grumbler, as no
one liked.

" And now it was that the drink got more
free, for they know'd it was 'andy, and the
upset of all rules and regulations and no
discipline set 'em on to it Speddick, too,
took to booze, and no wonder, bein' a weak
man, and no more fit for skipper than for king.
For, if rd bin *im, Td 'ave shot a couple of us,
and made 'em respect me.

" Well, there we was, beggars on 'orseback,
if ever men was, and ridin' to the devil was
easy, and the way plain as the road is for drink
when a chap is thirsty and 'as a bottle of beer
open afore 'im.

"It's luck I'm tellin' you this, for none of
us should 'a come out of the mess Speddick
put us in, what with not bein' able to 'old 'is
own and the drink. For there we went
boomin' north, and the Falklands 'andy to 'it
on, and weather no observation could be took
in, and dead reckonin' in no man's mind.

'• I never see'd the log 'ove once, and don't
believe it was 'ove. And Bean was nateral
230

A SEA COMEDY

good company, and as fond of a glass and a
song as any man, and often there warn*t no
one on deck but the man at the wheel, though I
did look up now and agin to see 'ow she stood
it For, by the drift of things, it was me as
run 'er, and when me and Gavel was one we
shortened or made sail. For Speddick 'ad
'is soul in soak in less than ten days arter he
broke adrift, and 'elpless 'e was mostly, and
Bean singin', 'avin' a good voice, as I said.

" But the weather not bein' too bad, times
warn't so rough, and I'm willin' to bet no crowd
'ad a softer seat For Jackson 'ad to cook
well, and did, after one time sendin' in burnt
soup, they dipped 'is 'ead in. And with little
more than a man's trick at the wheel comin'
round, there warn't much 'ardship.

** It was Casey, the Irishman, and Bates,
them as 'ad the 'orrors in the 'orspital, as
first broke out real bad on the drink, for, me
bein' a bit boozed, they got the keys out o' my
pocket. For me and Bean took 'em from
Speddick, and Bean and Gavel, the on'y other
with real devilment in 'im, agreed I should
keep 'em. For Gavel 'ad some sense, though
231

THE RED BURGEE

not much» and, 'avin' a wife 'e was fond of, 'e
reely wanted to get 'ome, and 'e knew *is
weakness if 'e really got blind or very wild.
And 'is weakness was usin' of the knife.

" Owsever, I woke up, and found the 'ole
ship 'owlin' drunk, all but Sarle, and 'e not
rightly sober. And Mullen — 'is real name
was MuUer, but *e'd made it English — 'e was
singin' 'igh Dutch or low Dutch under the
table in the cabin, and the rest was at a real
drinkin' match.

" ' Where's the skipper ? ' I 'ears Sarle
say.

*' And then I comes in.

" 'Where's them keys? ' I says, and Smith
'ove 'em to me.

" *'Ere you are, old cock,' 'e say ; *but it
warn't I as shook 'em.'

*• ' Who's at the wheel ? ' I arst of 'im,
seein' 'e was clear- 'eaded.

" ' Shaw,' says 'e. And Shaw was pretty
sober, but eager to be relieved.

•*So I shoved my 'ead down the com-
panion, and asked Smith to come up. And,
likin' me, 'e did, and took the wheel. We
232

A SEA COMEDY

was then runnin* with foresail, three reefed
topsails, and the main-t'gairn'sl set over, for,
with things as they was, and a falling glass,
I'd not shook the reefs out when they might
'ave been.

" And, when below, a glass or two cheered
me up, and I was a bit merry, and sang
'em —

" ' RoUin' 'ome, rollin' 'omc,
RoUin' 'ome acrost the sea,
RoUin' 'ome to merry England,
RoUin' 'ome, dear land, to thee.'

And then Sarle sang, and the auctioneer
spun a yarn about a robbery. Then it was
that Sarle started the notion as nearly bust
us all.

" * This is a bloomin' republic, ain't it ? '
says e', very solemn, but with 'is blue eyes
twinkling.

" * Yes,' says the crowd.

'* ' Becos the king 'as abdicated,' says 'e.
* When the skipper is blind, and Bean 'ere
as bad, we ain't got no reg'lar leaders. And
I vote the time 'as come for a general election,'
says 'e.

233

THE RED BURGEE

" ' 'Ear, 'ear/ says Shaw, and the rest
lined in. And me, seein' as some good might
come out of it, I jined too. And Sarle gave
me a wink, as much as to say, * I ain't so
bloomin' drunk as I looks.'

" Then 'e gave us a speech, a real good
one, with words in it not a soul knowed, and
'e works the crowd up most enthusiastic, till
they was ready to fly out and make him
President right ofE

" * 'Old your row,' says 'e, good-humoured.
' This must be done reg'Iar. We'll do it as
is done in the States, with tickets.'

** 'E gets some paper out of the skipper's
cabin, and starts writin' these 'ere tickets out.
But, sudden, 'e stops.

*' ' I ain't reg'Iar,' says 'e. ' We'll divide
up in watches as we begun, and each shall
pick out the men they thinks should be
President and Vice.'

*' So we 'olds two meetin's, one on the
port, the other on the starboard side o' the
saloon. And, by the row there was, you'd
'ave thought the deck'd fly off". But in less
than an hour, with Sarle goin' first one
234

A SEA COMEDY

side then the other, we fixes the tickets up
in a way, though not without a split in the
parties, as 'e called 'em.

" For the starboard watch nominated me
for President, and Sarle for Vice, and the
port side fixed on Gavel for President and
Smith for Vice, though there was some on
both sides as funked it, and said it might be
mutiny.

"'Then,' says Sarle, contempshus, *you
can save your bacon by doin' the usual thing ;
you can nominate your own ticket.'

" And they nominated Speddick and Bean
in an 'ell of an uproar, quite the usual thing,
as I've bin told. But Prosser, who was
'orrible drunk, and grateful to the doc. for
what 'e'd done for 'im, not yet rid of the
remains of the jaunders, says 'e's for Sarle
for President

" When they offers me the nomination, I
accepts, grateful. But Sarle makes a most
elegant speech, and talks about the British
Empire, very fine, as I must say.

"And Gavel, 'avin' accepted on 'is side,
two goes on deck, and tells wot's up to Smith,
235

THE RED BURGEE

fair mad at bein' stuck there, and not knowin'
what was goin' on. And 'im they persuades
to join in.

'' The lot as 'ad nominated Speddick goes
in 'is cabin and tries to rouse 'im, but that
they couldn't do. Then they punches Bean
in the ribs, and wakes 'im up. And all 'e
says was, * All right, sonny,' and oflF 'e goes
to sleep agin.

'* Then we agrees that the election should
be 'eld next day, givin' time to sober a bit,
though not much, for some o' them 'ad the
stuff stowed away for the time they woke
dry-mouthed. And most turns in, and me
and Sarle goes on deck.

"It was then pretty black, and breezin* up,
and we was runnin' some eleven knots,
maybe more, and it looked as if she'd be
easier with the t'gall'n's'l off her. I told
Sarle so.

**'Why, let 'er scoot,' says 'e. 'She'll
take it off 'erself if she wants to. That 'ere
t'gall n's'l won't 'old none too much.'

"'Oh, all right,' says I. 'But, Sarle,
what started you on this election racket ? '
236

A SEA COMEDY

" * Ain't it time some one bossed the show ? '
'e arsts me.

" And I allowed it was.

" * That's wot I done it for/ said 'e, *and
the joke of it And, what's more, I mean
gettin' you and me elected,' says 'e. 'And,
once in, we can 'old the fort, eh } '

" I reckoned the same, for it's wonderful
what comfort a man can get out of somethin'
done reg'lar. And I was glad as *e'd called
it President For to be Captain would 'ave
bin mutiny, and no fatal error about that.

"That night the main-t'gall'n's'l parted
company with us all of its own accord, as
Sarle 'ad said, and I must say 'e 'ad 'is 'ead
screwed on right, and knowed a lot of
sailorisin', considerin' the little 'e'd bin to
sea.

**But I'm not one of them as thinks
experience is all that's wanted. That ain't
my philosophy. It's the nateral 'ead a man
requires, and a silly old thick-'eaded shellback
don't necessary know more than the skipper,
though, bar the figurin', there's little I myself
couldn't give 'em points at
237

THE RED BURGEE

" When it come mornin* I 'unted for Bean,
not findin' 'im in 'is berth, and I locates 'im
at last in the galley, drinkin' coffee, and
lookin' pretty sick. But there looked some
chance of gettin' an observation, and I per-
suades 'im to get 'is 'am-bone out, and take
a sight at eight o'clock. For Speddick
couldn't and wouldn't, bein' a'most in the
'orrors.

''And when me and Bean and Sarle
settled where we was, I felt easier. And
many's the time I wondered as no nateral
pride 'ad made Bean buck agin' me and the
others. But 'e didn't ; never a crooked word
come from 'im, bein' fond of the rum, I
reckon, and really thinkin' it was old
Speddick's look-out. And 'im and Sarle
gets quite thick, both bein' eddicated, though
Sarle know'd most about anythin* barrin'
navigation. And 'e'd even talk theeretic
about that, would Sarle, most convincin';
though I never followed 'im in the arithmetic
of it, not bein' much of a scholar myself.

** 'Owsever, when it come breakfast-time,
we 'ad grub, and a lacin' of rum in the coffee,
238

A SEA COMEDY

and we sets to on the electioneering. And
me bein' anxious to get in a'ead of the rest,
I give *em more rum, until Sarle says —

***No more, Cowen; go easy. Tis
bribery and corruption you're at, and we
don't want that 'ove at us afterwards.'

" * Right, matey,' says I. And, goin' more
cautious, I gives Blinkers a bottle, for 'e was
on my side, tellin' 'im to serve it out where 'e
thought it *ud do good, but not to waste it on
any of the crowd that was set notorious on
Gavel and that lot.

" By four bells in the forenoon watch, Sarle
as all the placards out on our side, and they
read somethin' like this —

" ' Vote for Cowen and Sarle, the People's
choice. Honest Administration and Good
Tucker.'

** That was one, and another was —

** * Reasons for votin' for Cowen and Sarle —
** ' I. Becos Cowen can thump any one

man on board, and do it easy.
" ' 2. Becos Sarle can fix up any one
wot gets thumped,'
and a lot more as I forget.
339

THE RED BURGEE

**And the others runs theirs out, but
their placards was a disgrace with the spelling
as Sarle points out to them as was waverin*.

** The votin' was to be done between noon
and eight bells, and Sarle and me 'ad got
'em down in a list

"Now, for me, there was myself, candi-
dates votin' as was agreed on, becos no man
could say as some of the candidates wouldn't
prefer another man to 'imself, seein' the
responsibleness of it, and Sarle and Blinkers
and Shaw for certain. Prosser and the
auctioneer was in the starboard watch, but,
when we got the Calashee notion workin',
watches didn't go for much, all piggin' in
together, and I couldn't reckon on them,
though I 'ad my *opes of the auctioneer.

*'And on the port side, three was for
Gavel and Smith. And of the others. Bates
and Mullen was the lot as wished for Speddick
and Bean, as was Prosser on my side, and
possible the auctioneer. And Pawson 'ated
them, and 'ated me, and might go for
Speddick.

*'So it stood four for us, and three for Gavel,
240

A SEA COMEDY

and four for Speddick, and Jackson and
Pawson uncertain. And if Bean and Sped-
dick voted for theirselves, they was in easy,
for then they *ad six ; that is, if Jackson and
Pawson didn't go solid for either of the
reg'lar tickets, as Sarle called 'em. And
this I'll say for Sarle, 'e kept 'is 'ead wonder-
ful, when mine was goin' dazed with the
complications of the show.

"At noon Sarle served out the votin'
papers, and explained to 'em that each paper
'ad all the names of all the crowd down, and
they was to put a cross agin' the names they
wishes for President and Vice.

** * But 'ow'U we know which is for which ? '
says Gavel.

" And that Sarle 'adn't thought on.

** * Then put a cross agin' the name for
Vice, and for President put two,' says 'e.
And, that seemin' nateral, they agreed.

" And the votin' papers was to be dropped
into Bean's cabin by 'is winder; and the
door bein' locked in the sight of all by me
and Gavel, we ties the key up in a 'andker-
chief, puts it in a bread bag, and 'oists it
241 Q

THE RED BURGEE

*alfway up the mizentopmast stay, with the
staysail 'alliards, and lets it swing there.

"And then the electioneerin' began, and
no mistake, and the Great Republic goin'
boomin' in a black gale, and no one but the
man at the wheel carin* a damn. The Gavel
crowd get 'old of Pawson first, and Gavel
palavers *im.

" * I never said nothin' to lead to that
row,' says *e, 'and Til own you outed me.
And, sure, you'll never vote for Cowen ? '

*** Will I be allowed aft ? ' asks Pawson.

" * Of course,' says Gavel.

"'Then, mebbe, Til vote for you,' says
Pawson.

** And I tries intimidation, though I didn't
want 'is vote

" ' If I gets in, I'll be easy with you,' says
I ; ' but if I gets in, and you agin' me, I'll
paste blazes out of you.'

''That's what I told 'im, and *e looked
mighty black, but I could see 'e thought it
worth thinkin' of, as it was, for I meant it.

" But while I was goin* at it open, Sarle,
with 'is tongue in 'is cheek, 'ad 'old of Bean,
242

A SEA COMEDY

as 'e told me. Could things go on as they
was, *e arst of 'im, and could *e 'old 'em down,
with such a silly ass as Speddick at the back
of 'im? And Bean allowed 'e warn't the
man to 'andle such a crowd, bein' young,
and used to the usual lot sailin' out of
London, not to men with guns in their
fists.

"And then they goes to Speddick, and
shakes 'im up, and Sarle mixes 'im a pick-me-
up, and makes 'im a bit comfortable, and
allows as 'e's very ill, and must be took care
of. And, afore 'e's done with 'im, 'e gets
Speddick 'imself to vote for me and 'im, and
Bean does too. But all this 'e kept dark,
for fear the Johnnies as wanted to vote for
Speddick mightn't do it, but, bein' throw'd
over by their men, vote for Gavel agin' me.

'* So now we 'ad six votes, and fifteen was
the full number. So two more would give
us the bloomin' majority. I made a speech,
and so did Sarle, and so did Gavel, and so
did the auctioneer, who 'ad a 'andsome patter,
and slung it off 'is chest a good 'un. But
who 'e was for, I couldn't tell, for blowed if
«43

THE RED BURGEE

'e know'd 'imself, though 'e give us all a good
word, till Prosser says —

" * 'Oo are you gettin' at, you silly jonnick ?
Come down out of that'

" And no one yet 'ad slung 'is paper in the
mate's berth. So I set Blinkers to sham a
bit drunker than 'e was, and offer Casey the
use of another botde of rum. And it worked
just like I wanted it. For Casey only wanted
a toppin' to what 'e'd took to go off. And,
as the last of the votin' time came on, 'is lot
found *im stretched out stiff with the drink,
and not even the 'ose over 'im fetched 'im to.
When this came out, Gavel carried on some-
thin' awful, and said somethin' about 'avin'
any truck with the Irish in the way of political
give and take, that Casey, bein' sober, would
'ave took up too quick. And Sarle wouldn't
touch 'im, sayin' that to wake 'im might be
dangerous, though, when eight bells was
passed, and the votin' done, he physicked 'im
good.

" So, Casey bein' incapable, we 'ad six out
of fourteen, and one more would make a tie,
and we know'd as some would sure vote for
244

A SEA COMEDY

Speddick. And I made Blinkers say a3 'e
would, because I wouldn't give 'im no more
rum, and I swore somethin' 'orrible at 'im.
And, just at seven bells, I shouts and fetches
'em all along, and says it's gettin' time to
vote. And Sarle comes 'urryin' too, and
fetches out 'is paper. And startin' 'em was
all as was wanted, as 'e know'd well.

''In five minutes all the votes was in but
Pawson's and Casey's and Speddick's. At
last Pawson whispers with Gavel, and drops
'is vote in. Then Sarle goes, and fetches
out Speddick ; just like a ghost, 'e was, and
for a while the crowd was 'alf scared. And
then Gavel, smellin' a rat, objecks to the
skipper, sayin' 'e warn't fit to vote. But
even 'is own side didn't see 'ow the old man
was to be stopped. So 'e done what we 'ad
told 'im, and Sarle took 'im back to ^is
bunk.

" ' And all 'avin' voted, we may aa^ well
count 'em now,' says L

'''Wait till it's eight bells,' says Gavel,
nasty, ' for, if you 'aven't 'ocusaed Casey, 'e
may come to before time.'
24s

THE RED BURGEE

*' * Who's 'ocussed 'im ? * says I, indignant,
for all I done was to get Blinkers to give the
bloke a nobbier too much.

"*Why, you, I shouldn't wonder/ says
Gavel.

" And, with that, I steps up to *im.

" * You're short in the memory,' says I, * or
you'd reklect I can lick you; for when
Pawson downed you and downed your pal, I
took 'im on, and 'e 'ad no sort of least show
with me.*

** And me lookin' nasty and ready, 'e says
nothin' much, but grunts. And then it was
eight bells.

*' Bean and Sarle and Gavel opens the
door, for I stood out of that, and, gatherin*
up the papers, they takes 'em into the saloon
to count 'em.

"By now the weather was real nasty
lookin', with a south-wester comin' up after
us, and it was my opinion as she wanted a
reef in the foresail, the way she was drivin'
'er nose in, though never a wet ship ; and, if
I was elected, the first thing I'd 'av 'em doin'
it, and, maybe, if I wasn't
246

A SEA COMEDY

" And, presently, I 'card 'em 'agglin' down
below, when I puts my 'ead down the com-
panion. It was Gavel's voice as caught me
first, and I could see as 'e was out of it. And
I laughed, and, just then, I 'eard a yell, and
then a crack, as if a maul 'ad 'it a bit of soft
wood. And down I jumped instantaneous,
seeing Bean with 'is mouth open, and 'is 'and
pinned to the table with a knife, and under
'is 'and a votin' paper. And Gavel was lyin*
insensible. For Sarle 'ad 'it 'im on the
ear'ole, and no man wanted two of Sarle's
cracks if 'e touched the proper place once.
And then Sarle says —

"* Steady, Bean, be a man.'

"And, 'im clappin' 'is own 'and on Bean's I
jumps on the table, and draws the knife out,
as was an inch in the wood.

"While Sarle binds up the 'and, I calls
the rest in, and shows them the knife, and
Bean bleedin', and the papers.

** * Which was in, Sarle ? ' says they.

** * Me and Cowen,' says 'e 'and that's wot
narked Gavel, and 'e called Bean a liar, and
then jabbed 'im.'

247

THE RED BURGEE

**Then I bids the auctioneer and Smith
go over the votes together, and they owns
me and Sarle was elected regular.

'* Then I walks to the end of the table,
and claps my 'and on the table.

" • Men,' says I, • I thanks you, and so
does Mr. Sarle, for the honour you done us.
And we'll deserve it by running things
better. And to begin with, I'll 'ave you all
know as I'm not goia' to be no poop orna-
ment, but boss. This is a ship, this is, and
no ship ever was as went well in the 'ands
of a committee. We've proved that, and
I'm goin' to get this 'ooker 'ome, and all
hands too.'

'* And they cheers, they does.

*• * Now,' says I, * there's one more thing ;
out with them six-shooters of yours, and
plank 'em on the table.'

" ' No,' says Smith.

** * And yes,* say I, * and now, or there'll
be trouble.'

'' With that I pulls out two as 'ad been
the captain's. And Sarle picks 'em up as
they put 'em down, very slow, but they
248

A SEA COMEDY

done it. Knowin' who *ad 'em, I got the
lot.

*' 'That'll do,' says I ; 'and now we'll reef
the foresail.'

** Which we done accordin', and I got a
look-out on the job, makin' the Dutchman
take the first, and the auctioneer the second.
For I wanted to bring the rest to their
bearin's easy. And I was dead set on 'avin'
all the credit of bringin' her 'ome, with,
maybe, an 'andsome present from the owners.
Which was Sarle's notion too.

" The first thing next mornin' was to know
what to do about Gavel's jabbin' Bean through
the 'and, and Bean and Sarle and me discussed
it The first thing I'd done, though, was to
make Smith carry 'is mate for'ard just as 'e
was when Sarle knocked 'im stiff.

'' ' And take 'is dunnage with 'im. Let
'im come to in the fo'c's'le.'

'* All 'is own particular crowd stood in with
'im, and didn't show up in the saloon for some
time.

"'Shall I 'oof them out too, Sarle?' I
arst, wantin' 'is opinion*
249

THE RED BURGEE

" ' Better 'ave the 'ole lot back there,"
says 'e.

" * What'U they 'atch together ? ' says I.

" ' Not so much if our lot's with 'em.'

" But who know'd 'ow long they'd be our
lot then ? 'Owsever, I speaks on the quiet to
Shaw and Blinkers.

" * Would you kick if we was to arst of
you to go back into the fo'c's'le, mates?' I
says. For I didn't stand on no dignity with
'em as yet. * For,' says I, *it stands to
reason we can't have Gavel and 'is pals 'ere,
and if you volunteer to go for'ard again, it'll
be easier, and less liable to rise ructions,
which I'm not anxious to 'ave.'

" And they agrees quite easy, for Blinkers,
I know'd, couldn't get over the notion as 'e
'ad no business aft, and Shaw was right under
my thumb, and fond of Sarle, who looked
after 'is leg, much given to achin', though
especial so when there was aught to be done
aloft.

** * Be a bit sulky if you likes,' says I, ' but
give us the orfice if they 'atches any thin' up.
For, if they does, devil a penny shall they
250

A SEA COMEDY

get of their run money, and you can 'int, if
you like, as Sarle and me 'as the skipper at
our backs.'

" So they goes for'ard, and, presently, the
rest comes aft for their dunnage too, one by
one, kind of casual, but very sulky Smith and
Casey was.

"Well, when the next mornin' come, I was
on deck early, for I *ad the mornin' watch,
me and Sarle bein' more like first and second
mates. And, at eight bells, I turns up the
'ands in my very best style, bo'sun, mate, and
President rolled in one, and aft they comes,
all but Gavel. Sarle and me stood at the
break of the poop, and Mullen was at the
wheel ; she still runnin* as she was before.

" I counts 'em up.

" * Where's Gavel .^ ' said I, short enough.

" * For'ard,' says some one. I didn't rightly
catch *oo.

** * Tell *im to come aft, and quick,' says I.
And Prosser goes for'ard. If 'e didn't come,
I was goin' to fetch 'im by 'is ear, and a boot
be'ind. 'Owsever, e comes after a bit.

•* ' Come up on the poop,' says I.
251

THE RED BURGEE

*' And 'e came up — oh, but lookin' blade
I pulls my gun, and Sarle puts the irons on
'im very neat for an amatoor. Then I faces
the crowd agin.

'' ' After a fair election, you 'ave made me
President, and President Til be,' says I;
*and there ain't goin' to be no stabbin' or
jabbin' or free drinks in this ship. Some
of you reckoned as this was to be a kind of
Fiddler's Green, but, you mark me, you ain't
seven miles the other side of *ell yet. No ;
you're in a pleasant ship, with all things
comfortable, or in 'ell itself, just as you
shapes. For I've 'ad enough of this, and if
the skipper 'ad been strong, I'd a* backed
'im. As 'e ain't, we've fixed this up for you/

** Then I turns to Gavel.

" * Which do you prefer. Gavel ? ' I arst of
'im. * To be kep' in irons and give up when
we gets 'ome, or for Mr. Bean to give you
beans 'ere, and say nothing about it ? '

" * You can't give me up at *ome,' sajrs
Gavel. * You're mutineers yourselves.'

" * That's what you're relyin' on, is it ? *
says I. * But you're off it this time, miles
252

A SEA COMEDY

off. For Speddick voted for me 'imself, and
I 'ave it writ out in 'is own 'and.'

" For that me and Sarle saw to, and Gaval
knew 'e was 'ad on toast

"'Well, then, I'll take toko from Bean,'
says 'e, sulky.

** And I calls on 'im to 'ear what 'e said.

" * And till Bean's 'and's well, I'll keep you
'ere,' says I. *A prisoner you'll be till
then.'

** And we puts *im in an empty cabin, and
locks 'im up. With the other would-be
President in choky, we reckoned to break the
party up, 'avin' no other likely candidate, so
to speak.

" Soon after this we runs north out of the
bad weather, and I 'ad 'em at work agin, for
I 'ad it in my mind to bring 'er 'ome in good
shape, which 'ud be more to my credit. For
now she was fair tumblin' to pieces, and
every seizing rotten, and every backstay
a'most in 'anks.

"With Bean bossin' most of the jobs,
'owsever, with 'is arm in a sling, we got on
fine, and our on'y real trouble was Speddick,

253

THE RED BURGEE

poor creature, as was reely sick. What
Sarle named 'is complaint I disremember,
but *e said 'e'd be a goner unless 'e got *ome
quick, and was put on proper diet. So I
cracked on all I could, and Sarle learned
navigation with Bean, and we was all pretty
'appy aft, though a bit of a fermenting went
on for'ard. Blinkers kep' me posted, though,
and I never feared aught And if it adn't
bin for that swab Jackson, we'd 'ave 'ad no
more trouble. But *e wasn't of a forgivin'
nature, though I never thought it of 'im.

** We was near up to the line afore Bean's
'and was properly mended, and then I turns
the 'ands up to see Gavel punished. We
spread-eagled 'im on one of the wheel
gratin's, and Bean gave him toko with a
rope's end. But this I'll say, 'e 'ad grit, and
didn't 'owl till it was necessary, and then
Sarle doctored 'im. And we turned 'im
for'ard agin when 'is back was sound, and I
served out grog extra, over their whack,
which was a tot a day, and two on Sundays.

**A week after that we crossed the line,
and picked up the North-east Trades,
254

A SEA COMEDY

blowin' strong. And then one Sunday we
was very near *ad, and I'm thinkin' it
wouldn't 'ave been no joke if we'd gone
under in the bloomin' plot as Jackson fixed
for us. And to think as I missed the whole
joke of it 'as often made me mad to think of.
For it was Sarle as pulled us through.

" That day, at noon, Jackson brought the
dinner aft, as 'e always done, soup and a bit
of first-class beef and some duff. 'E laid it
all out under dish-covers, for 'e 'ated comin*
in more'n once, and I never 'ankered after
the sight of 'is face. Bean took some soup
into the old man, lyin* very weak and
despondent, and me and 'im sits down, and
'ands up a plateful to Sarle, as 'ad the deck.
For that we done always, and well Jackson
know'd it

" I drinks some of the soup quick, and
Bean some of 'is, and then, of a sudden, I
feels that sleepy, I couldn't name the feelin',
and, lookin' up, I sees Bean drop, with 'is
'ead on the table, and afore I could open my
mouth I dropped too. And what 'appened
after, Sarle told me.

255

THE RED BURGEE

" Findin' 'is soup a bit 'ot, and never much
carin* for it, and, moreover, *avin' a chew in
'is cheek, 'e sets 'is down to cool. And,
presently, 'e calls to me about somethin', I
don't reklect what it was 'e said after. And
me not answerin', 'e looks through the lifted
skylight, and sees me with my 'ead on the
table. Then 'e calls * Bean,' and Bean was
likewise speechless. 'E runs down, and gives
us a shake, but 'e might as well 'ave shook a
corpse, and then 'e tumbles to it, and sees 'e
ain't no time to lose. And 'e 'ad a good 'ead.
Never should I 'ave thought of what 'e
did.

" 'E pours the soup into the tureen, and
whips up on deck with it, takin' Bean's
revolver, and mine too ; and, puttin' the soup
down by the capstan, on the capstan he lays
the spare shooter, and 'olds two in 'is 'ands,
setting down on a 'encoop, from which 'e could
get a good view of the deck. Then 'e lays
back agin' the rail, and shuts 'is eyes, or
three-quarters shuts 'em. And, presently, 'e
sees Jackson peer round the deck'ouse,
twiggin' 'im. Then 'e goes back, and comes
256

A SEA COMEDY

agin with Gavel, and Smith, and Prosser,
and Pawson, and Casey. And, just so soon
as they was all aft of the mainmast, Sarle
wakes up, so to speak, and, jumpin' to the
break of the poop, *e sings out —

" * Come up on the poop, all of you, or Til
fire.'

** And, though they looked sick, they came
up, Jackson speakin' low, prob'ly say in' as
Sarle would drop in a minute.

" * One at a time. You, Jackson, first/
says Sarle. And, when Jackson came up,
Sarle orders 'im to sit down, with 'is back to
the rail at the break of the poop. And, as
each one comes up, 'e done the same,
coverin* them with his revolvers, both cocked.
Then 'e sings out —

** * Blinkers,' in the voice of a bull, and
Blinkers comes out of the fo'c's'le.

" * Bring a pannikin, quick,' says Sarle
and Blinkers come along with 'is pannikin,
wonderin' what was up. But now Sarle was
easy in 'is mind.

" • Give each of these gents 'alf a pannikin
of this soup,' says 'e, ' and see they drinks

257 R

THE RED BURGEE

it.' And Jackson goes as white as though
dead.

" * For Gawd's sake, no,' 'e fcries. And
Sarle laughed.

" ' That, or I'll kill you,' says 'e. And
Jackson supped it, with 'is eyes startin' out
of 'is 'ead. And so with the others. And
Sarle said as Jackson keeled over afore the
last one, as was Prosser, 'ad touched 'is.

*' * Is many more in this. Blinkers?' arsts
Sarle.

**And Blinkers, who was fair knocked
endways, allowed 'e couldn't tell, but didn't
think so.

** * Call the others aft, then,* says Sarle,
and the rest they turned out, and to see the
others lyin' round like a lot of pigs scared
'em at first. But the doctor explained, and
they swore they'd 'ad no 'and in the notion,
and Sarle believed 'em, and quite rightly.

'* Then they carries me and Bean on deck,
and for a while Sarle was pretty scared as
we'd bin dosed too stiff, but 'e gives us
medicine, and, presently, 'e got easier, seein'
we wasn't poisoned. About six hours after
258

A SEA COMEDY

takin' the dose I comes to, but 'is whack
lasted Bean twice as long, and the poor
old skipper slept till next day like an 'og.

"When I woke up, for a while I was
that stupid I couldn't make out what was
what, but, by-and-by, with Sarle repeatin* it,
I reely woke.

"* Ain't it a circus?' says Sarle, showin'
me the six conspiraytors sleepin* peacefully by
the break of the poop. And 'e kicks Jackson
in the ribs.

" * This josser nicked the laudanum from
the medicine-chest, that's what 'e done. I've
looked, and it's gone. What'U we do with
*em when they wakes ? *

*' By the 'oly Moses, it puzzled me, it
did.

" Could I try 'em, and 'ang 'em ? Why,
no, of course I couldn't But I'd 'a liked to
'ave 'ung Jackson, as done this trick. Thinks
I, * I'll give you laudanum when you comes
to, my Shang'ai-in* swine.' And, then, who'd
do the cookin'? For, whatever 'e was, 'e
could cook very decent.

'' All of a sudden the thing took me on the
^59

THE RED BURGEE

other tack, and I started laughin', and it took
Sarle that way quite infectious. And the
others jined in, one by one, and presently we
was fair 'owlin', and 'oldin* our sides, and
lyin' on the deck. Well, now, but it was
funny, as any manll allow, to see them dosed
that way, and sleepin' peaceful, them as ad
'cocted up the idea, most likely, of dumpin'
me over the rail.

*' I clapped Sarle on the back, and made
'im jump.

** ' Well, now, but you are a rare 'un, Sarle.
rd 'a shot and killed, but you done it 'umer-
some. Oh, wait till they wakes, and 'ears
me. Oh I just wait!'

" And off I goes agin, fair rediklus for a
President, and most undignified. So I picks
myself up, and sobers down, and Sarle and-
cuffs Gavel and Jackson, sleeping and the
others we ties up tight.

**And, early in the mornin' watch, they
come to, one after the other ; and a pretty
sight they looked, I can tell you. Mean —
well, mean ain't the word, and I'd passed the
order as no one was to speak to 'em, even
260

A SEA COMEDY

when they spoke, and that made them sicker
and very scared. And, to scare 'em more, I
made Blinkers seize a jewel-block to the
starboard yardarm of the cro'jack, and
reeve a rope in it, and, quite promiskus and
cool, I tried some runnin* nooses on the
rope, and left one lyin', a real 'angman's
knot. And, about ten o'clock, Smith speaks
to me.

"Ain't you goin' to give us no tucker?'
says 'e. And 'avin' set old Shaw to do the
cookin', I calls to *im —

'* * Bring the rest o* that 'ere soup o* yester-
day's 'ere,* says I.

'* And, bringin' it, I bids 'im set it down in
front of 'em.

"•*Oo'll 'ave some?' says I. *You,
Jackson ? '

** 'E never speaks.

** No, you man-druggin', sailor-robbin'
scum,' says I, *you know you won't. And
as for the rest of you, I'd never 'a thought as
you'd so bemean yourselves as to league your-
selves with such dirt.'

** And, losing my temper, and bein' forget-
261

THE RED BURGEE

ful of my position, I emp's the soup over
Jackson.

*'*Now lick your lips,' sa3rs I. And I
leaves 'em to sweat for another hour or so» for
me and Sarle and Bean 'adn't fiited up what
to do with 'em yet

*' But when we argued it out, Sarle reckoned
as it was best to keep Jackson and Gavel
tight, and let the others go.

** 'There's no real 'arm in any of 'em, bar
Pawson, and 'e's too thick-witted to *atch
any thin',' says *e. 'If we gives *em a talkin'
to, I shouldn't wonder if they'd act fairly
decent'

" And we done so, unanimous, jawin' them
one arter the other. They trembled, I tell
you, when I get at 'em. And Sarle spoke so
fine about lawful authority, the skipper bein'
sick, that, when we let *em go, they touched
their caps to me. And that day I gets out a
gold-peaked cap belonging to Speddick, and,
with a good suit of serge, I looked the skipper
all over. And none but Blinkers would I
speak to familiar, and 'im on'y at night, when
'e took the wheel. I began to 'ate the idea
262

A SEA COMEDY

of not bein' an orficer, and Sarle tried to larn
me navigation. But too thickheaded I was —
that's the truth, and I own up to it. Yet
captain I *ave been, as I'm tellin', and when
the crowd dalled me captain I took it, and the
President notion I dropped.

'* * Bloomin* despotism,' says Sarle. * You
was elected President, and now you 'ave
blossomed out as Dictator, 'avin' a nateral
gift that way. And it bein' in the nature of
things with a rough crowd.'

'' But that crowd I 'ad to rights, and the
ship like a man-of-war with new paint. For
I never struck no better weather, and all our
time was give to makin' the ship good to
look at

•'And presently Speddick came round a
bit, and would crawl on deck sometimes, but
not much. 'E never said nothin' about
authority, and was grateful to me and Sarle.
On'y but for Sarle 'e'd 'ave croaked a sure
thing.

" We picked up a pilot early, and came up
to London boomin', and somethin' to look
at, I tell you ; and in the river, I relents, and
263

THE RED BURGEE

lets Gavel and Jackson out of irons. They
'ad the stiffenin' took out of 'em by that, and,
moreover, the land was on both sides, and
the sight of a brick made 'em think of the
stone jug, them seein' me 'and and glove
with poor old Speddick and the pilot.

** And when the owners came on board, as
they done when we was warpin' into the
East Dock, they be'aved real grateful to
me and Sarle. And we let Bean down
easy, and evidence for that in 'is wounded
'and. But when they looks for Gavel and
Jackson, they 'ad 'ooked it — jumped ashore
as the owners came aboard.

** I got every red cent I'd agreed for with
Speddick, and Sarle got more than common
pay. And I've a notion we might 'ave
worked salvage on 'em, or somethin' like it.
'Owsever, we was satisfied, and when the
biggest of the owners, 'im as named the firm,
says, * You ought to be a orficer,' I was that
proud, you can't tell. And the company of
the firm says the same, and they says, * Get
a second's ticket, and you shall 'ave a berth
right off.'

264

A SEA COMEDY

*•* Thank you kindly, gentlemen/ I says,
'but, after bein' captain and President, I
can't take no understrapper s billet And,
with the cash in 'and. Til start a beer'ouse,
and name it the " Great Republic." '

" And that I done."

Printed by Baixanttmb & Co. Limitsd
Tavittnck Street, LoodM

4- '

/"■

STANFORD UNIVEIi

CECIL H. GREE

STANFORD, CALIFOR

(415) 722

All books may be rec

DATE C

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